CD
1 09 095
READINGS IN ANCIENT HISTORY
ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS FROM
THE SOURCES
I. GREECE AND THE EAST
BY
WILLIAM STEARNS DAVIS
'ROFE8SOR OF ANCIENT HISTOBT IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF MINNESOTA
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
WILLIS MASON WEST
HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
IN THE UNIVEBSITY OF MINNESOTA
ALLYN AND BACON
Boston tfeto fork Chicago
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY
WILLIAM STEARNS DAVIS
AUTHOB'S PREFACE
THIS book aims to set "before students beginning the study
of Ancient History a sufficient amount of source material to
illustrate the important facts mentioned in every good text-
book. There is also a clear intent to give the reader some
taste of the notable literary flavor pervading the histories
of Greece and Rome. It is a distinct loss of an opportunity
to pass from the study (e.g.) of the Persian Wars and to gain
no first-hand acquaintance with Herodotus ; or, again, of the
Roman Emperors and to read no typical passages of Tacitus.
This compilation has been prepared for constant use along
with some standard text-book, and various matters of marked
historical importance, as the Servian Constitution of Rome,
have been deliberately omitted, because most school his-
tories state the fact sufficiently well, and little is added by
reproducing the arid statements in Livy. On the other
hand, many tales have been included, like the story of Tlie
Ring of Polycrates or of Cincinnatus catted from the Plow,
which condensed histories may well slight but which afford
refreshing illustrations of the ancient life or the ancient
viewpoint.
Comparing the compass of this work with the wide extent
of available literature, it is evident that a very large num-
ber of desirable passages have been perforce omitted. There
are practically no quotations from Cicero, because Cicero is
a writer many students will earn a passing acquaintance
with in the schools ; again, certain highly significant pas-
sages (e.g. Thucydides's version of the " Funeral Oration "
by Pericles) are omitted, because they are quoted in so many
iv AUTHOR'S PREFACE
school histories. There are no quotations from JEschylus
or Sophocles, because those paladins of tragedy were, after
all, poets and not historians. The compiler has been forced
continually to exercise his best judgment. He is entirely
aware how fallible that judgment may have been.
To meet the requirements for a work covering the Old
Orient and the Early Middle Ages (to 800 A.D.) sections
have been added covering these topics, but no attempt has
been made to have them so long as the chapters relating
strictly to Greece and Rome. Even for the " classical "
history itself, far more material came to hand for some
periods than for others. Desirable selections for the Ifirst
Age of Rome are scanty, while again readings on the First
Century of the Empire come in bewildering profusion. As
a rule, however, those epochs for which one has the most
material are, in turn, the best worth studying, and no apol-
ogy is made for the lack of proportion in the length of some
of the chapters.
This volume has been prepared for immature students :
it is therefore stripped of the learned notes, citations, refer-
ences, etc., which are rightly demanded by the erudite. The
notes and introductions have a single end in view, to
make the selections comprehensible to readers with little
experience in Ancient History problems. Out of consid-
eration for this audience, also, the pages have not been dis-
figured by frequent indications of omission, where passages
of the ancient writer have been stricken out in' the interests
of brevity. In every case, however, where, to facilitate con-
densation, words not of the original author have been sub-
stituted,, they are always inclosed in brackets [ ], to guard
against misconception.
In compiling a work of this kind a great number of trans-
lations have been put under requisition. In many cases
these have been diligently compared with the originals, and
often such alterations have been made in the wording as to
AUTHOR'S PREFACE V
render the present author largely responsible for the form
here given. This is entirely the case (except with Plutarch)
where the translation appears without being ascribed to any
particular translator. It has seemed presumptuous to en-
deavor to improve the incomparable versions of Herodotus
by Rawlinson, or of Thucydides by Jowett, but many of the
familiar Bohn translations offend by a stilted pedantry which
completely destroys their literary value. To avoid frequent
repetition, it may be said here that the numerous extracts
from Herodotus are always after Rawlinson, and from Plu-
tarch after Dryden (revised by Clough). To the various
authors and publishers of copyrighted books from which
excerpts are taken, who have generously given permission
to copy, all thanks are here extended. Specific acknowl-
edgements are due here to Charles Scribner*s Sons for per*
mission to make use of matter in Hastings^ " Dictionary of
the Bible " (5-volume edition) and in Breasted's "History
of Egypt": to the History Department of the University
of Pennsylvania for matter taken from their "Historical
Reprints " ; to Dr. Horace White for excerpts from his
" Appian " ; to Professor F. W. Kelsey for extracts from
his edition of Mau's "Pompeii " 5 to Professor G. H. Palmer
for his " Hymn of Cleanthes" ; and to the friends of the late
Professor H. B. Foster for passages from his u Cassius Dio."
The dates given in the running headlines are often highly
approximate, especially for the earlier periods of history ;
and should not be memorized without careful comparison
with the text and with various standard authorities.
In ,the preparation of this work the compiler has received
generous assistance from many quarters, but particularly
from Professor W. M. West of the University of Minnesota,
who, besides writing the Introduction, has at all times given
most friendly counsel out of a wide, practical experience,
and who has afforded active assistance upon the work both
during its inception and its final development. Hearty
VI AUTHOR'S PREFACE
thanks axe also due to Mr. Richard A. Newhall, formerly
Assistant in History in the University of Minnesota, who
went over the entire manuscript most faithfully, checking
up all important references and otherwise making it useful
to historical students.
w.aB.
THE UNIVERSITY OP MINNESOTA,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA,
May,
INTRODUCTION
DR. DAVIS lias placed high school teachers of history
tinder an obligation which they mil be quick to recognize.
This book takes rank by itself. There are excellent " source
books " in Greek and Roman history adapted to their own
valuable work. But this is not a source book, in the usual
sense. Fitly, it calls itself Readings. It unfolds a pano-
rama of ancient life etched, drawn, painted, caricatured,
by contemporaries. No great phase of that life is neglected,
and I take this opportunity to testify my special delight in
the attractive presentation of two important epochs often
slighted, the Hellenic World after Alexander and the Ro-
man Imperial World. It was, a happy adaptation of work-
man to work that persuaded Dr. Davis to this task. His
instinct for dramatic story and striking situation, and his
faultless literary sense, have never, I believe, served better
use. The boy or girl who once gets hold on the volume is
sure to breathe in more of the atmosphere of the ancient
world than from any possible study of a conventional text-
book. Indeed, the Readings will lend needed light and
color to any text-book. In my judgment, a high school
class in Ancient History should have this book, not merely
in the library for occasional reference, but constantly in the
hands of each student. If that is arranged, most other
"library work" may, perhaps, be omitted by a first-year
class without serious loss, providing the following year in
Modern History is so planned as to put emphasis on library
reference. Not all varieties of historical training can be
given with equal stress in one year certainly not in a first
vii
viii INTRODUCTION
year. This volume makes it possible to do the most deeir.
able things for that year more easily and more effectively
than ever before.
Now as to some of those things and how to do them. I
hesitate to speak as a dogmatic pedagogue ; but this is just
the matter on which I am particularly requested to speak in
this Introduction. Concrete details depend largely upon
the articulation with the regular text-book, and must vary
with the text used. I must confine myself to a few general
principles.
1. The volume is not designed for "hard" study, to be
tested scrupulously by minute questioning : it is meant for
reading. At the same time, it is planned so that, with a
little thought by the teacher, it may be a daily companion
to any standard text in Ancient History. Eeadings should
usually be assigned for a group of days ahead (two days to
five), to allow for variation in arrangement between this
book and the text; and students should then be expected
and helped to go back at the proper times from passages
in the text to the appropriate passages in the Readings.
They should be taught to look for and to utilize Dr. Davis's
suggestions at the head of each "number " as to the most
essential things to look for in the extract. And almost
daily, while the correct habit is forming, the teacher will
find opportunity to ask, " What further light on this do you
find in the Readings ? " Did you get that idea from your
text-book or from a.* contemporary' authority ?" "Does
the passage from Thucydides in the Readings support or
weaken this statement of your text ? " Such practice should
be continued and varied until the student instinctively turns
from text to Readings and back again, supplementing each
by the other, in his consideration of each topic.
'2. Now and then a suitable passage (not too long) may
even be used in the way more peculiar to "source books"
proper, for painstaking and exhaustive study, to establish
INTRODUCTION IX
conclusions in advance of the text, or to disclose evidence
for positions there taken. Eor this purpose, the teacher
may need at first to dictate searching questions. For a few
typical documents Dr. Davis has supplied such questions;
but the selection of documents to be used in this way will
necessarily vary with, the text-book. 2sow and then the
class may be required to write questions upon a document;
and, still better, a student may prepare himself to question
the class orally first, of course, communicating to the in-
structor the points he intends to bring out.
3. When the survey of an important period or topic has
been completed (Greek life in the days of Pericles, for in-
stance), it will sometimes be well to spend a day or more
in re-reading the Readings, with a class exercise to bring
out points found there and not previously dwelt upon.
4. The historical introductions by Dr. Davis should, of
course, be compared carefully with the corresponding
matter in the regular text ; and any divergences of opinion
will afford convenient occasion for reference to larger stand-
ard authorities by an individual or by the class.
5. The student should certainly acquire some discriminat-
ing sense as to why one source differs from another in his-
torical value or reliability. He can appreciate easily why,
(e.g.) Vol. L 44 (contemporary statement) is better author-
ity for the facts it recites than is Vol. I. 51, which has
tradition or recollection merely for the facts it states. And
such discrimination is susceptible of considerable develop-
ment. Moreover, it is quite possible for the student to
comprehend that even where a contemporary's judgment is
erroneous as to fact) it is still often a historical fact itself
of great significance. In this connection, to all cautions by
Dr. Davis in his introductions against taking an opinion as
an infallible authority merely because it is contemporary
and old the teacher will need to add frequent reminder as
to the partisan or personal or class bias of many of the
X INTRODUCTION
writers quoted. It may be driven slowly into the everyday
consciousness of the class that Homeric bards sang to chief-
tains for largess, and were glad to gratify such auditors
by raising a laugh at the expense of the annoying Thersites,
who, in real life, may that day have bested the chief in the
Assembly; that Aristophanes and Juvenal were ancient
" muckrakers," with far less zeal for accurate statement
than have their successors who trouble our society in the
monthly magazines ; that Cicero was a complacent and de-
lightful old "standpatter," and Tacitus a preacher who
heightened the virtues of other peoples in order to darken
the vices of his own land ; that most professed historians
were more eager for a good story than for scientific accu-
racy ; and that, during all time, democracy has had its his-
tory written chiefly by its enemies since literature has
belonged so largely to the aristocrats.
6. I close with a suggestion, hardly needed, of perhaps
the finest use of the volume. A true teacher ought to find
in every class some students before whom these extracts
may be dropped as delectable bait, to lure them on to high
enjoyment of Plutarch and the Odyssey and Marcus Aure-
lius in their entirety.
WILLIS MASON WEST.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA,
May, 1912.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Ancient Egypt
PAQB
Introduction 1
1. A Hymn to the Nile. Papyrus 1
2. Illustrations of the Views and Ambitions of Egyptian
Kings. Inscriptions 4
3. A Letter from the Egyptian Governor of Palestine an-
nouncing a Revolt. Papyrus 6
4. Rameses II and his Army. George Ebers ... 7
5. The Residence of a Great Egyptian Nobleman. George
Ebers . ' 9
6. The City of Tanis in the Delta of the Nile. Papyrus . 11
7. An Egyptian Bazaar. Maspero 12
8. Life of the Poor in Old Egypt. Maspero ... 14
9. Extracts from the Precepts of Ptah-Hotep. Papyrus . 15
10. The Style of Beka the Ethics of an Egyptian Noble-
man. Inscription 18
CHAPTER II
Babylonia and Assyria
Introduction 20
11. Part of Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I, King of As-
syria. Inscription 20
12. How Sennacherib waged War on HezeMah, King of
Judah. Inscription 23
13. An Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar. Inscription . . 24
14. A Denunciation of Nineveh. The Bible .... 27
15. Letter of an Assyrian Physician reporting upon a -Pa-
tient. Clay Tablet Writing 29
xi
xii CONTENTS
PACK
16. Babylonish Beliefs in Omens by Eclipses. Clay Tablet
Writing 30
17. How Archeologists secure One of our Oldest Dates.
Inscription 31
18. An Assyrian City. Maspero 32
19. An Assyrian Palace. Maspero .... . .34
20. Selections from the Code of Hammurabi. Clay Tablet
Writing 35
21. A Babylonian Lawsuit relating to a Jew. Clay Tablet
Writing 39
22. An Akkadian Hymn to the Setting Sun. Clay Tablet
Writing 40
23. The Assyrian Story of the Creation. Clay Tablet
Writing 41
24. Babylonish Prayers and Psalms. Clay Tablet Writing . 43
CHAPTER III
The Persian Empire
Introduction 45
25. How Cyrus took Babylon. Clay Tablet Writing . . 45
26. A Jewish Utterance concerning Cyrus. The Bible . 47
27. The Great Inscription of Darius at Behistun. Inscrip-
tion 48
28. The Persians' Devotion to their King. Herodotus . 54
29. A Sermon attributed to Zoroaster. Zend-Avesta . . 55
30. The Zoroastrian Story of the Judgment of the Soul.
Zend-Avesta 57
31. Customs of the Persians. Herodotus .... 58
CHAPTER IV
Earliest Greece
Introduction 62
32. The Early Cretans. Hawes 62
33. The Homeric Assembly. The Iliad .... 65
34. The Episode of Dolon : a Typical Homeric Episode. The
Iliad 71
35. The Shield of Achilles. The Iliad 73
CONTENTS xiii
PAGE
36. Odysseus's Opinion as to Married Happiness. Odyssey 77
37. The Palace of Menelaus at Sparta. The Odyssey . . 77
38. A Farm Laborer in Homeric Times. The Odyssey . 79
39. Advice to Farmers and on Navigation. The Hesiod . 81
CHAPTER Y
The Early Centuries of Historic Greece
Introduction . 84
40. An Early Hymn to Apollo. Homeric Hymns . . 85
41. How Glaucus tried to tempt the Delphic Oracle.
Herodotus * . , . 86
42. Croesus and the Delphic Oracle. Herodotus 88
43. Delphi and the Amphictyons. Strabo .... 90
44* A Description of Olympia in the Days of its Glory.
Pausanias 94
45. The Teachings of the Early Greek Sages upon Religion
and Morality. Collected by Felton. .... 98
46. How Syracuse was Founded. Strabo .... 99
47. The Colony of Naucratis in Egypt. Herodotus . . 101
48. Theognis the Poet Laments the Misrule in Megara.
Theognis 102
49. Lycurgus's Reforms in Sparta. Plutarch . . . 103
50. The Spartan Discipline for Youths. Plutarch . .107
51. Solon and Croesus. Herodotus Ill
52. The Ring of Polycrates. Herodotus . - . .114
53. "Harmodius and Aristogeiton," the Patriotic Song of
Athens. Athenian Popular Song 117
54. The Ancient Constitution of Athens. Aristotle . .118
55. The Reforms of Clisthenes. Aristotle .... 120
56. How Athens was given a Democratic Organization, by
Clisthenes. Herodotus 13<
CHAPTER VI
The Peril from Persia
Introduction 130
57. Aristagoras at Sparta. Herodotus 131
58. Aristagoras at Athens and what came of It. Herodotus 134
xiv CONTENTS
PAOB
59. How the Persians came to Marathon. Herodotus . 137
60. The Battle of Marathon. Herodotus .... 139
61. Aristides and his Opposition to Themistocles. Plutarch 144
62. How Athens resolved to face the Persians. Herodotus . 150
63. The Contingents and Nations in Xerxes' Army.
Herodotus 155
64. How the Hellespont was Bridged. Herodotus . . 158
65. How the Greek Towns were forced to entertain Xerxes'
Army. Herodotus . 163
66. How Xerxes dealt with the Greek Spies. Herodotus . 164
67. How Leonidas held the Pass of Thermopylae. Herodo-
tus . 165
68. How Leonidas and his Band perished at Thermopylae.
Herodotus 170
69. The Evacuation of Attica. Herodotus .... 175
70. How Themistocles brought on the Battle of Salamis.
Herodotus 177
71. The Battle of Salamis. Herodotus 185
72. The Answer the Athenians gave the Persian Envoy
before the Battle of Plata. Herodotus ... 190
73. The Battle of Plataea. Herodotus 191
CHAPTER VII
The Golden Age of Athens
Introduction 199
74. The Manners and Personal Traits of Cimon. Plutarch 199
75. The Athenian Empire at its Height. Thucydides . 202
76. How Pericles beautified Athens. Plutarch. . . . 207
77. The Corinthians contrast the Athenian and Spartan
Temperaments. Thucydides 212
78. Thucydides's Estimate of Pericles and his Policy.
Thucydides 214
79. Constitution of Erythra. Inscription .... 215
80. The Relations of Athens with Phaselis. Inscription . 217
81. How the Peloponnesian War began at Platsea. Thu-
cydides 218
82. The Affair of Pylos. Thucydides 221
83. The Sailing of the Athenian Armament for Sicily. Thu-
cydide* , ... 226
CONTENTS XV
PAGE
84. The Last Fight in the Harbor of Syracuse. Thucydides 228
85. How the Athenian Prisoners at Syracuse were Treated.
Thucydides 231
86. The Battle of JSgospotami. Xenophon . . . 232
87. A Meeting of the Ecclesia. Euripides . . . . 234
88. Habits of Athenian Jurors. Aristophanes . . 237
.89. Anecdotes about Socrates. Diogenes Laertius . . 240
90. Socrates's Method of Showing up Ignorance. Plato . 243
91. Socrates's Apology for his Life. Plato .... 245
192. Socrates's Argument that Death is no Evil. Plato . 249
93. The Old and the New Style of Education. Aris-
tophanes 251
94. A Picture of Greek School Life. Herondas . . .255
95. The Will of the Philosopher Plato. Diogenes Laertius 257
96. The Healing of Plutus. Aristophanes .... 258
97. Pindar's Picture of the Elysium of the Bighteous,
Pindar 261
98. Hippocrates and Greek Medical Science. After Felton 262
99. Xenophon's Picture of an Ideal Household. Xenophon 265
CHAPTER VIII
From -aSgospotami to Chaeroneia
Introduction 272
100. How Lysias escaped from the "Thirty." Lysias . 272
101. Traits and Character of Epaminondas. Cornelius
Nepos 276
102. The Battle of Leuctra. Xenophon . . . 279
103. How Philip of Macedon began his Reign. Justin . 284
104. How Demosthenes became an Orator. Plutarch . 286
105. How Demosthenes tried to arouse his fellow Atheni-
ans against Philip. Demosthenes .... 292
106. The Battle of Chseroneia. Diodorus Siculus . . 293
107. Alexander's Tribute to the Transformation Philip
wrought in Macedonia. Arrian .... 296
CHAPTER IX
Alexander, Amalgamator of East and West
Introduction 298
108. The Youth of Alexander the Great. Plutarch . . 298
xvi CONTENTS
PAGB
109. How Alexander drew up his Phalanx. Anton . 304
HO. Alexander's Answer to the Petition of Darius for
Peace. Arrian 305
111. The Founding of Alexandria by Alexander the Great.
Arrian 307
112. Darius's Army at Arbela. Arrian . 308
113. Alexander before the Battle of Arbela. Arrian . . 309
114. The Battle of Arbela or Gaugamela. Arrian . . 311
115. How the News of Alexander's Conquests affected the
Greeks. JSschines 314
116. The Murder of Clitus by Alexander. Arrian . . 315
117. How Alexander tried to commingle East and West.
Arrian 317
118. Aman's Sketch of the Character of Alexander. Arrian 320
CHAPTER X
The Hellenistic Age
Introduction 322
119. How Elephants fought in Hellenistic Armies. PolyUus 322
120. The City of Antioch. Strabo 324
121. A Description of Alexandria. Strabo .... 325
122. The Great Spectacle and Procession of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus. AthencBUs 329
123. The Great Ship of Hieron, King of Syracuse. Athe-
nau* 332
124. The Hymn of Cleanthes. Cleanthes .... 335
125. How Aratus took Sicyon from the Tyrant Nicocles.
Plutarch 337
APPENDICES
Greek Money and Measures . 343
List of Modern Translations Used 344
Select Critical Bibliography 346
Biographical Notes of the Ancient Authors Quoted . . 353
GREECE AND THE EAST
GREECE AND THE EAST
CHAPTER I
ANCIENT EGYPT
The study of ancient history naturally begins with an examina-
tion of the monuments and records of Old Egypt. Whether Egypt
or Babylonia really presents to us the earlier civilization is difficult
to determine, nor is the question one of great importance. Certain
it seems that in both of these great river valleys something approxi-
mating civilized life existed possibly as early as 5000 B.C., although
scholars are not agreed as to whether we have any actual remains
from such a remote period. It should be remembered that the de-
velopment of Oriental culture was that of a slowly-growing plant,
and centuries of preparation surely intervened between the original
settlement of the Nile valley and the production of the first archae-
ological remains that have survived for us.
A large part of the evidence especially for Egyptian life is pic-
tonal, bas-reliefs, tomb pictures, etc., which cannot well be
reproduced in a book like this (see 4). Again, it should be re-
membered that the literary style of the earliest folk which com-
mitted its thoughts to writing is likely to appear highly grotesque
and stilted to moderns. This makes many of the Egyptian inscrip-
tions difficult reading even in good translations. The following
extracts will at least give 'a passing idea of the literary products of
the Egyptian priests, who probably had most bookish matters en-
tirely in their hands.
1. A HYMN TO THE KILE
Papyrus, Records of the Past" * (2d series), vol.ni, p. 48
Egypt, as Herodotus the Greek historian says, "is wholly the
gift of the Nile." Except for the annual inundation the country
l This is a series of books edited by Professor A. H. Sayce and published
in London. It should not be confused with the monthly magazine of the
same name published in Washington.
1
2 ANCIENT EGYPT
would be as hopelessly desert as the lands about it. The Egyptians
quite naturally recognized their debt to the wondrous river, the
bounty whereof was all the more marvelous because the sources of
the stream and the real causes of the inundation were practically
unknown to them. This feeling of gratitude is expressed in the
very ancient hymn here quoted.
Adoration to the Nile !
Hail to thee, O Nile !
Who manifestest thyself over this land,
Who cometh to give life to Egypt !
Mysterious is thy issuing forth from the darkness,
On this day whereon it is celebrated !
Watering the orchards created by Ra 1
To cause all the cattle to live
Thou givest the earth to drink, inexhaustible one !
Loving the fruits of Seb 2
And the first fruits of Nepera
Thou causest the workshops of Ptah 8 to prosper.
Lord of the fish, during the inundation,
No bird alights on the crops !
Thou createst corn, thou bringest forth the barley,
Assuring perpetuity to the temples.
If thou ceasest thy toil and thy work,
Then all that exists is in anguish.
If the gods suffer in heaven,
Then the faces of men waste away. . . . 4
If the Nile smiles the earth is joyous,
Every stomach is full of rejoicing,
. Every spine is happy,
Every jawbone crushes its food. . .
1 The Egyptian sun god. 3 Seb " is the Earth.
2 The master craftsman of the gods.
8 The gods no less than mankind are imagined as dependent on the Nile.
1500 B.C.] HYMN TO THE NILE 3
A festal song is raised for thee on the harp,
With the accompaniment of the hand.
The young men and thy children acclaim thee
And prepare their long exercises.
Thou art the august ornament of the earth,
Letting thy bark advance before men,
Lifting up the heart of women in labor,
And loving the multitude of the flocks.
When thou shinest in the royal city,
The rich man is sated with good things,
The poor man even disdains the lotus, 1
All that is produced is of the choicest,
All the plants exist for thy children.
If thou hast refused to grant nourishment,
The dwelling is silent, devoid of all that is good,
The country falls exhausted.
inundation of the Nile,
Offerings are made unto thee,
Oxen are immolated to thee,
Great festivals are instituted for thee,
Birds are sacrificed to thee,
Gazelles are taken for thee in the mountain,
Pure flames are prepared for thee. . * .
Nile, come and prosper !
thou who makest men to live through his flocks,
Likewise his flocks through his orchards,
Come and prosper, come,
Nile, come and prosper!
i Herodotus (II, 92) tells how the Egyptians eat the flower and root ol
the lotas.
ANCIENT EGYPT
2. ILLUSTBATIONS OF THE VIEWS AND AMBITIONS OP
EGYPTIAN KINGS
Adapted from Breasted, "History of Egypt," passim
The kings of Egypt were practically gods in the eyes of their
subjects ; in theory their power was absolute. In practice they
seem to have been much hampered by a powerful priesthood and a
self-assertive nobility. The utterances quoted from their inscrip-
tions show that while some kings delighted in conquest, others took
quite as much pleasure in promoting the peace and prosperity of
their people. The Instructions of Amenemhat I to his son show
forth the terrible isolation of the "divine" Pharaoh, and the ingrat-
itude and treason which he had ever to fear was lurking under
infinite Up service.
By Amenemhat I (12 dynasty, about 2000 B.C.)
I was one who made the grain to grow, and who loved the
god of the harvest. In every valley did the Nile greet me.
In my years none had hunger and none had thirst. In peace
lived the people, and their talk was of me because of the
[good] deeds which I wrought.
From Amenemhat L Instructions to his Son
Hearken to that which I tell thee, that thou mayest be
king over the earth and ruler over its countries, and thy
prosperity may increase. Harden thy heart against thy
underlings. The people obey him whom they hold in fear.
. . . Take no brother to thy heart, cherish no friend, keep
no intimates * there is no end to them. When thou sleep-
est, still be on thy guard, for a man has no people [to defend
him] when the evil day approaches. I gave to the beggar;
I sustained the orphan ; I was gracious to the humble as well
as to the mighty but he who ate of my bounty turned rebel:
he to whom I gave my hand turned and smote me [literally
"aroused fear therein"].
i The king had evidently suffered from gross ingratitude.
1175 B.C.] AMBITIONS OF EGYPTIAN KINGS 5
[In a more complacent vein are the following utterances of
Thutmose (or Thothmes) III, a mighty warrior ; and of Barneses
III, who was among the last of the kings to keep up the best
traditions of Egyptian royalty.]
From an inscription recording the conquests of Thutmosis III
(about 1450 B.C.)
[The high god Amon 1 is assumed to be addressing the king
thus:]
I have come, giving thee the mastery over the men of Asia.
Captive hast thou taken the chiefs of the Asiatics of Retenu :
I have made them behold thy glory arrayed in thy panoply,
When thou hast taken their weapons in the chariot. . . .
I have come giving thee the mastery over the Islanders.
The dwellers afar in the vast sea hear thy thunders ;
As an avenger I have made them behold thy glory,
An avenger rising above his slain victims.
[And in like manner he boasts of conquering many other lands.]
From the Inscription recording the Reign and Deeds of Barneses
III (about 1175 B.C.)
[After telling of the restoration of the public peace following a
period of confusion.]
I laid taxes on the people every year. Every town was
enrolled and paid in its tribute. ... I made the woman of
Egypt to go with uncovered ears, 3 to go whithersoever she
would, for no stranger, no wayfarer would molest her. I
made the infantry and chariot-force to stay in their
homes, . . . they had no fear, for there was no enemy from
Cush [Ethiopia] ; none from Syria. ... I sustained the
whole land, whether foreigners, common folk, or citizens
1 Official liead of the Egyptian pantheon and the great national deity.
2 Perhaps the meaning is that she could safely uncover her valuable
earrings.
6 ANCIENT EGYPT
male and female. The man in misfortune I delivered and
restored to breath. If he had a powerful oppressor, I de-
livered him. To each and all I gave security in his town.
I dealt with others justly at my tribunal [literally " hall of
petition"]. I caused the land that had been wasted to be
resettled. The country was well content while I reigned.
3. A LBTTBB FROM THE EGYPTIAN GOVERNOR OF PAL-
ESTINE ANNOUNCING A EEVOLT
Papyrus, " Records of the Past " (2d series), vol. V, p. 72
Before the Hebrews were fairly settled in southern Palestine the
country seems to have been for quite a period under Egyptian
lordship. The following letter from the governor, announcing the
peril in which the Egyptian garrison in the whole region and
especially at Jerusalem has been placed by a general revolt of the
natives, possesses not a little interest for Biblical students.
The approximate date of the letter seems to be about 1375 B.C.
To the King my Lord : Thus says Ebed-tob, thy servant,
who prostrates himself at the feet of my Lord the King
seven times seven.
The King is aware of the deed that Malchiel and Suarda-
tum have done. They have marshaled the forces of the
city of Gezer against the country of my Lord the King : and
with these the hosts of the cities of Gath and of Keilah.
They have occupied the territory of the city of Kabbah.
The King's country has gone over to these [hostile] confed-
erates. And even at this moment the city of Jerusalem . . .
belonging to the King is placed in hostility to the locality of
the men of the city of Keilah [who have reyolted].
May the King hearken to Ebed-tob his servant, and may
he dispatch troops, and may ho restore his country to his
royal dominions. But if no troops arrive the King's country
is [surely gone over to the Confederates]. The deed is the
deed of Suardatum and Malchiel. , . .
May the King send help to his country !
1250 B.C.] RAMESBS II 7
4. EAMESES II AKD HIS ARMY
George Ebers, "TTarda," chap. XXXVHI
So much of our evidence for Egyptian life and thought depends
upon the pictures with which the walls of their temples, tombs,
and palaces were covered that a correct impression of their civili-
zation cannot be given by quoting from their literary remains
alone. An able German scholar, gifted with a scientific imagina-
tion has in a novel, "Uarda" tried with much success to
reconstruct the life of the days of Rameses II. His descriptions
have the double advantage of vividness and accuracy, and may be
accepted as substantially correct.
[The king and his army are represented as being in camp in
Northern Syria the night before a great battle with the Hittites.]
The soldiers had not gone to rest as usual. Heavily armed
troops, who bore in one hand a shield of half a man's height,
and in the other a scimitar, or a short, pointed sword,
guarded the camp, where numerous fires burned, round
which crowded the resting warriors. . . The servants of
the chariot guard were fully occupied, as the chariots had
for the most part been brought over the mountains in de-
tached pieces -on the backs of pack-horses and asses, and
now had to be put together again, and to have their wheels
greased.
On the eastern side of the camp stood a canopy, under
which the standards were kept, and there numbers of priests
were occupied with their office of blessing the warriors, offer-
ing sacrifices, and singing hymns and litanies. . . . From
time to time also the deep roar of the king's war lions might
be heard. Those beasts followed him into the fight, and
now were howling for food, as they had been kept fasting
to excite their fury.
In the midst of the camp stood the king's tent, surrounded
by foot and chariot guards. The auxiliary troops were en-
camped in divisions according to their nationality, and be-
8 ANCIENT EGYPT
tween them the Egyptian legions of heavy-armed soldiers
and archers. Here might be seen the black Ethiopian with
woolly, matted hair, in which a few feathers were stuck,
the handsome, well-proportioned " son of the desert " from
the sandy Arabian shore of the Red Sea, who performed
his wild war dance, flourishing his lance with a peculiar
wriggle of his hips, pale Sardinians, with metal helmets
and heavy swords, light-colored Libyans with tattooed
arms and ostrich feathers on their heads, and brown,
bearded Arabs, worshipers , of the stars, inseparable from
their horses, and armed, some with lances, and some with
arrows.
In the midst of the royal tents was a lightly constructed
temple with the statues of the gods of Thebes, and of the
king's forefathers; clouds of incense rose in front of it,
for the priests were engaged from the eve of the battle un-
til it was over, in prayers and offerings to Amon, the king
of the gods, to Necheb, the goddess of victory, and to
Menth, the god of war.
The large pavilion in which Barneses and his suite were
taking their evening meal was more brilliantly lighted than
the others ; it was a covered tent, a long square in shape,
and all around it were colored lamps. [It was watched by
a special picked guard of swordsmen. . . .]
The walls and slanting roof of this quickly built and
moveable banqueting hall consisted of a strong, impene-
trable carpet stuff, woven at Thebes, and afterward dyed
purple at Tanis by the Phoenicians. The cedar wood pillars
of the tent were covered with gold, and the ropes which se-
cured the light erection to the tent pegs were twisted of
silk, and of thin threads of silver.
Seated round four tables, more than a hundred men were
taking the evening meal : at three of them the generals of
the army, the chief priests, and councilors sat on light
stools ; at the fourth, and at some distance from the others,
1250 B.C.] RESIDENCE OP A NOBLEMAN 9
were the princes of the blood; and the king himself sat
apart at a high table on a throne supported by gilt figures
of Asiatic prisoners in chains. His table and throne stood
in a low dais, covered with panthers' skins ; but even with-
out thaty Barneses would have towered above his compan-
ions. His form was powerful, and there was a commanding
aspect in his bearded face, and in the high brow, crowned
with a golden diadem adorned with the heads of two
Uraeus snakes, wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower
Egypt. A broad collar of precious stones covered half his
breast, and the lower half was concealed by a scarf or belt,
and his bare limbs were adorned with bracelets. . . . Be-
hind the Pharaoh stood a man younger than himself who
gave him his wine cup after first touching it with his own lips.
This was the king's charioteer and favorite companion.
5. THE RESIDENCE OF A GREAT EGYPTIAN NOBLEMAN
George Ebers, "Uarda," chap. VIEI
In " Uarda " we have the following reconstruction of the resi-
dence of a high Egyptian official. . There were undoubtedly many
such mansions in the thirteenth century B.C.
[The mansion is supposed to be near Thebes, in the days of
Barneses II, the most powerful of the Egyptian kings.]
It was evening . . . and the coolness which had succeeded
the heat of the summer's day tempted the citizens out into
the air in front of their doors or on the roofs and turrets of
their houses ; or to the tavern tables, where they listened to
the tales of the professional story-tellers, while they re-
freshed themselves with beer, wine, and the sweet juice of
fruits. Many simple folk squatted in circular groups on
the ground, and joined in the burden of songs which were
led by an appointed singer to the sound of a tabor and
flute.
To the south of the temple of Amon stood the king's
10 ANCIENT EGYPT
palace, and near it, in more or less extensive gardens, rose
the houses of the great nobles, among which one was dis-
tinguished by splendor and size ; that of Paaker the king's
"Pioneer" [a high arm j officer], . . .
The gate giving entrance to his plot of ground through
the surrounding wall, was disproportionately, almost osten-
tatiously, high and decorated with various paintings. On
the right hand and on the left two cedar trunks rose as
masts to carry standards ; he had had them felled for the
purpose on Lebanon, and forwarded by ship to Pelusium
on the northeast coast of Egypt. Thence they were con-
veyed by the Nile to Thebes.
On passing through the gate one entered a wide, paved
courtyard at the sides of which walks extended, closed in
at the back, and with roofs supported on slender painted
wooden columns. Here stood the pioneer's horses and
chariots, here dwelt his slaves, and here the necessary store
of produce for the month's requirements was kept.
In the further wall of this store court was a very high
doorway, that led into a large garden with rows of well-
tended trees and trellised vines, clumps of shrubs, flowers,
and beds of vegetables. Palms, sycamores, and acacia trees,
figs, pomegranates, and jasmine throve here particularly
well . . . and in the large tank in the midst there was
never any lack of water for the beds and the tree roots, as it
was always supplied by two canals, into which wheels
turned by oxen poured water, night and day, from the Nile
stream.
On the right side of this plot rose the one-storied dwelling
house, its length stretching into distant perspective, as it
consisted of a single row of living and bed rooms. Almost
every room had its own door that opened into a veranda
supported by colored wooden columns, and which extended
the whole length of the garden side of the house. [Behind
this joined a row of storerooms.]
1250 B.C.] THE CITY OF TANIS 11
In a chamber of strong masonry lay safely locked up the
vast riches accumulated by Paaker's father and by himself,
in gold and silver rings, vessels and figures of beasts. Nor
was there a lack of bars of copper and of precious stones,
particularly of lapis lazuli and malachite.
In the midst of the garden stood a handsomely decorated
kiosk, 1 and a chapel with images of the gods ; in the back-
ground stood the statues of Paaker's ancestors in the form
of Osiris 2 wrapped in mummy clothes. The faces, which
were likenesses, alone distinguished these statues from each
other.
The left side of the storeyard was veiled in gloom, yet
the moonlight revealed numerous dark figures clothed only
in aprons, slaves of Paaker, who squatted in groups of five
or six, or lay near one another on thin mats of palm bast,
their hard beds.
Near the gate a few lamps lighted up a group of dusky
men, the officers of Paaker's household, who wore short shirt-
shaped white garments, and who sat on a carpet round
a table hardly two feet high. They were eating their even-
ing meal, consisting of a roasted antelope and large fiat cakes
of bread. Slaves waited on them and filled their earthern
cups with yellow beer ; while the steward cut up the great
roast on the table,
6. THE CITT OF TANIS IN THE DELTA OF THE KILE
Papyrus, " Records of the Past " (1st series), vol. VI, pp. 13-16
The city of Tanis, an important place in the Nile delta, was
built by Barneses II (reigned about 1292 to 1225 B.C.), and is
thus described by a contemporary Egyptian in the so-called
" Letter of Pambesa." It is worth noticing what a traveler in
the thirteenth century B.O. thought proper to record as of interest
1 A summerhouse peculiar to the Orient.
2 Upon being beatified in the next world, departed worthies were sup-
posed to be identified with the god Osiris.
12 ANCIENT EGYPT
to his correspondents. At the time he wrote, Egypt was in the
flood time of its prosperity, and possibly never before or after did
life " pass in plenty and abundance " in the land, more than in the
days of Barneses IL
So I arrived at the city of " Kameses-Meriamen," and
found it admirable : for nothing on the Theban [southern]
land and soil can compare with it, Here is the seat of the
court The place is pleasant to dwell in, its fields are full
of good things ; and life here passes in plenty and abundance.
The canals are rich in fish ; the lakes swarm with birds ;
the meadows are green with vegetables ; there is no end to
the lentils ; melons with a taste like honey grow in the irri-
gated gardens. The barns are full of wheat and durra [a
grain], and reach as high as heaven. Onions and grapes
grow in the inclosures ; and the apple tree blooms among
them. The vine, the almond tree, and the fig tree are found
in the orchards. The redfish is common in the lotus canal ;
the Bori-fish in the ponds ; many varieties of the same to-
gether with carp and pike (?) in the canal of Pu-harotha. . . .
The city canal Pshenhor produces salt, the lake region of
Pahir produces natron. Sea-going ships enter the harbor.
Plenty and abundance are perpetual.
7. AN EGYPTIAN BAZAAR
Abridged from Maspero, " Ancient Egypt and .Assyria," p. 29 ff.
In much the same spirit as Ebers, a famous French Egyptolo-
gist has drawn us this picture of the commerce and surroundings
of an Egyptian bazaar, in the days of Barneses II.
. [In Thebes after threading one's way through dark and
very narrow streets one would at last] emerge into the full
sunshine of a noisy little square where a market is being
held. [Here are all kinds of cattle on sale, and] peasants,
fishermen, and small retail dealers squat several deep in
front of the houses, displaying before them in great rush.
1250 B.C.] . AN EGYPTIAN BAZAAR 13
baskets, or on low tables, loaves of pastry, fruit, vegetables,
fish, meat, raw or cooked, jewels, perfumes, stuffs, all the
necessities and all the superfluities of Egyptian life.
The customers stroll past and examine leisurely the
quality of the commodities offered for sale; each carries
something of his own manufacture in his hand a new tool,
some shoes, a mat, or a small box filled with rings of copper,
silver, or even of gold of the weight of an outnou (nearly 3
ounces) which he proposes to barter for the object he re-
quires. Two customers stop at the same moment before a
peasant who exhibits onions and wheat iu a basket. Instead
of money one holds two necklets of glass or of many colored
earthenware, the second a round fan with a wooden handle
and one of those triangular ventilators which cooks use to
quicken the fire. [Each praises his offering and asks a cer-
tain number of onions for it : the peasant at first is obdu-
rate.] The one asks too much, the other asks too little;
from concession to concession they finally come to terms, and
settle the number of onions or the weight of corn which the
necklet or fan may be worth.
[Although metal rings and bars are preferred, a great deal
of the trade is simply by barter ; and much time and wind are
consumed in making a trade. The unit of weight for metals
is the outnou, and often] the rings or twisted wires which
represent the outnou and its multiples do not contain the
reputed quality of gold or silver, and are too light. They
are weighed at every fresh market. The parties interested
take advantage of the excuse for quarreling loudly, declaim-
ing that the scales are false, that the weight has been badly
taken, etc.
Two or three commercial streets or bazaars open from the
other side of the square, and the crowd hastens towards
them when it leaves the market.
Nearly their whole length is filled with stalls and shops, in
which not only Egypt, but the majority of oriental nations,
14 ANCIENT EGYPT
display their most varied productions. Beautifully orna>
mented stuffs from Syria, Phoenician or Hittite jewelry,
scented woods and gems from Pnut and Arabia, lapis and
embroideries from Babylon ; coral, gold, iron, tin, and amber
from far-distant countries beyond the seas are found scattered
pell-mell amongst the native fine linen, jewels, glasswork,
and furniture. [The shops are small, square rooms, open
in front; and usually behind are some apprentices busy
manufacturing the wares which their master sells, unless he
is a dealer in foreign products.]
There are confectioners, and restaurants where ready cooked
meats can be bought either to be taken away, or eaten on
the premises. Barbers go roving about in the bazaars ; and
their customers squat down on the ground wherever they
are to have their heads as well as their beards shaved.
There are also beer houses near by. The reception room
is furnished with mats, stools, and armchairs. Here the
customers drink beer, wine, and palm brandy. No sooner
has a stranger seated himself than a maid servant comes up
to him offering liquor and urging, " Drink with rapture !
Listen to the conversation of thy comrades and enjoy thy-
self ! " There is a great deal of hard drinking, but public
opinion condemns drunkenness, and moralists urge " Do not
forget thyself in the breweries," and again that, " Beer de-
stroys the soul."
8. THE LIFE OF THE POOR IN OLD, EGYPT
Abridged from Maspero, " Ancient Egypt and Assyria," p. 6
What life was to the millions of the laboring peasants who
built the pyramids, and later the great palaces and temples of
Thebes, and cultivated the fertile corn lands of Egypt, is illustra-
ted thus by M. Maspero. The glories of the old Egyptian
monarchy were paid for by ceaseless ton, infinite discomfort, and
downright grinding misery for the masses.
2700 B.C.] PRECEPTS OP PTAH-HOTEP 15
Although, polygamy is legally allowable, men of the
lower classes seldom have more than one wife. The family
is very united, but the husband rarely stays at home during
the day : his work calls him abroad at sunrise. He then
goes out barefooted, bareheaded, or merely wearing a skull-
cap. His only dress is a pair of cotton, drawers that barely
fall below his hips. He carries his food with him, two
cakes baked in the ashes, one or two onions, sometimes a
little oil, sometimes a morsel of dried fish. Towards noon
the work stops for an hour or two, which is used entirely
for eating and sleeping ; it ceases entirely at sunset. All
the trades have their disadvantages, thus the poet says,
" The stone mason seeks his work in every kind of hard
stone.
When he has completed his orders, and when his hands
are tired, does he rest ?
[Not so] : he must be in the workyard at dawn : even
if his knees and spine break with his toil."
The wages so laboriously earned are extremely scanty,
and usually paid in kind a little corn and oil, on festival
days some wine or beer. The overseers bear* a stick as
their insignia, and use it freely.
" Man has a back," says the proverb, " and only obeys
when he is beaten!"
It was the stick that built the Pyramids, dug the canals,
won victories for the conquering Pharaoh, and made Egypt
a great manufacturing nation. It has so entered into the
daily life of the people that it is looked upon as an in-
evitable eviL
9. EXTRACTS FROM THE PRECEPTS OF PTAH-HOTEP
Inscription, " Records of the Past " (2d series), vol. Ill, p. 17 ff.
Ptah-Hotep was a high civil magistrate and nobleman under
a Pharaoh of the Fifth dynasty (probably about 2700 B.O.). The
whole of his "Precepts' 1 of which only a small portion is here
16 ANCIENT EGYPT
quoted falls into 4* short chapters, and has the general style^
concise, shrewd, practical, of the Hebrew "Book of Proverbs."
The "Precepts" has been called "the oldest book in the
world" and there are surely very few which antedate it
Human nature five thousand years ago seems to have been
distinctly like that of to-day, and many of Ptah-Hotep's. pithy
admonitions are not without a twentieth century application.
[Ptah-Hotep] says unto his son, Be not arrogant because
of what thou knowest : deal with the ignorant as with the
learned; for the barriers of art are not closed, and no
artist is in possession of the perfection to which he should
aspire. But good words are -harder to find than the emerald.
If thou findest a disputant while he is hot, and he is
the superior to thee in ability, lower the hands, bend the
back, do not get into a passion with him. As he will not
let thee destroy his words, it is utterly wrong to interrupt
him. That proclaims that thou art incapable of keeping
thyself calm when thou art contradicted.
If thou hast, as leader, to decide on the conduct of a
great number of men, seek the most perfect manner of
doing so, that thy own conduct be blameless. Justice is
great, invariable and sure : it has not been disturbed since
the age of Osiris [the golden age].
If thou art a farmer, gather the crops (?) in the field which
the great God hath given thee, fill not thy mouth in the
house of thy neighbors.
Be active in the time of thy existence, doing more than is
commanded. Do not spoil the time of thy activity ; he is a
blameworthy man who makes a bad use of his moments.
Lose not the daily opportunity to increase thy household
substance. Activity produces riches, but riches endure not
when activity slackens.
If thou art a wise man, bring up a son who shall be
pleasing to God. . . .
Be not of an irritable temper as regards that which
2700 B.C.] PRECEPTS OF PTAH-HOTEP 17
happens beside thee. Grumble (?) not over thine own
affairs. Be not of an irritable temper in regard to thy
neighbors. Better is a compliment to that which displeases,
than rudeness.
If thou art wise, look after thy house. Love thy wife
without alloy. Pill her stomach, clothe her back, these are
the cares to bestow upon her. Caress her, fulfill her desires
during the time of her existence it is a kindness which
does honor to its possessor. . . . Tact will influence her
better than violence.
If thou art a wise man sitting in the council of thy lord,
direct thy thoughts toward that which is wise. Be silent
rather than scatter thy words. When thou speakest, know
that which can be brought against thee. To speak in the
council is an art, and speech is criticised more than any
other labor. It is contradiction which puts it to the proof.
If thou hast become great after having been lowly, harden
not thy heart because of thy elevation. Thou art become
only the steward of the good things of God. Put not
behind thee the neighbor who is like unto thee: be unto
him as a companion.
Bend thy back before a superior. [If] thou art attached
to the palace of the king, thy house is established in its
fortune, and thy profits are as is fitting.
When a son receives the instruction of his father, there is
no error in all -his plans. Train thy son to be a teachable
man whose wisdom is agreeable to the great. To-morrow
knowledge will support him, while the ignorant will be
destroyed.
A son who attends [to his father] is like a follower of
[the god] Horus. He is happy after having attended. He
becomes great; he arrives at dignity; he gives the same
[wise] lesson to his children.
Let thy thoughts be abundant, but let thy mouth be
under restraint; [then] thou shalt argue with the mighty.
18 ANCIENT EGYPT
10. THE STYLE OF BEKA THE ETHICS OF AN EGYPTIAN
NOBLEMAN
" Records of the Past (1st series), vol. X, p. 5
A nation and a religion can be judged fairly accurately by the
ethics enjoined for personal conduct. What were the ideals in life
of an Egyptian nobleman are well stated on this funeral monument
of Beka. He seems to have been " The Great Steward of the
Public Treasury " an office very similar to that of the Hebrew
Joseph and claims (or his heirs claim for him) to have led a
completely virtuous life. Making due allowances for the compla-
cent tone of the inscription, the ideals to which the Beka announces
he has conformed give the impression that at its best the Egyptian
conception of practical righteousness 'was high indeed.
A royal gift of offerings, to the person of the Steward of
the Public Granary, BEKA the "justified." 1
He says,
I myself was just and true, without malice, having put
God in my heart, and having been quick to discern his
will.
I have reached the city of those who are in eternity.
Good have I wrought upon earth: prejudice I have not
harbored ; wickedness I have not done : I have not condoned
any iniquity: I have rejoiced to speak the truth.
I have perceived the advantage of doing thus righteously
upon the earth from my infancy even unto the tomb. My
sure defense shall be to speak the truth in the day when I
reach the divine judges [the forty-two assessors of Osiris, the
god of the hereafter], discoverers of all actions, the chastisers
of all sin.
Pure is my soul. While living I bore no malice.
There are no errors to be laid to my door, no sins of. mine
are to be laid before the judges. I come out of this trial
[vindicated] with the help of truth : and behold I am in the
"i Ze.'he is among the blessed dead.
1250 B.C.] ETHICS OF A NOBLEMAN 19
place of the just. [And then the Steward is made to boast of
his various virtues while on earth, e.g :]
I have not made myself a tyrant over the lowly.
I have done no harm to men who honored the gods.
I was in favor with the King, and beloved by great ones
around him.
The men of the future will be charmed by my remarkable
merits.
My sincerity and goodness were in the heart of my father
and mother : my affection was centered (?) upon them.
Though a great man, yet have I acted as if I had been a
little one. 1
My mouth has always been opened to utter time things,
not to ferment quarrels.
I have repeated .what I have heard, just as it was told
me.
i I.e. I have acted humbly.
CHAPTER II
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
On the whole, the literature of the ancient Babylonians and
their Assyrian neighbors is more intelligible to readers of to-day
than that of Egypt. There is less repetition of stilted phrases
perpetuated by the priesthood j again, Bible students find a famil-
iar echo in many of the Babylonian writings, owing to the kinship
of their Semitic authors to the Hebrews. Taken as a race the
dwellers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley were mightier warriors
than their contemporaries upon the Nile, and had more interest
and pride in military matters. It must be remembered, how-
ever, that down to the rise of the Assyrian monarchy no single
ruler controlled the whole of the valley of the Twin Rivers ; and
great royal enterprises, as e.g. the Pyramids, were impossible,
although some of the brick temple towers in Babylonia were of
very notable proportions.
In the first part of this chapter are three quotations from the
annals of the Babylonian- Assyrians j in the second part are a num-
ber of word pictures, drawn from various sources, illustrating the
life and institutions of the people, usually taken from the later
period of their history when their civilization was at its highest.
11. PART OF INSCRIPTION OF TIGLATH-PILESER I, KING
OF ASSYRIA
Inscription, "Records of the Past " (2d series), vol. I, p. 92 ff.
Tiglath-Pileser I (about 1120 B.C.) was the first king of Assyria
who made really extensive conquests. This inscription recording
his victories was found on four large octagonal cylinders of clay,
buried under the foundations of the four corners of the great tem-
ple at Assur, the oldest of the Assyrian capital.
20
1120 B.C.] VICTORIES OF TIGLATH-PILESER 21
In this inscription we find the regular earmarks of an Assyrian
royal chronicle: constant invocations of the gods, endless self-
praise, and continual glorying in acts of fiendish cruelty. Assyria
was a vast success as a purely military monarchy ; her kings were
the bold leaders of a brave and battle-loving people, but they had
no genius for organizing peaceful government. They were content
to force a defeated nation to pay tribute and submit to general
spoliation ; yet left to the natives their kings, laws, etc. The re-
sult was ceaseless revolts whenever the Assyrian terror abated,
followed by ruthless reconquests often repeated many times.
Assur the great lord, director of the hosts of the gods, the
giver of the scepter and the crown, the stablisher of the
kingdom ; Bel the Lord, king of all the spirits of the earth,
the father of the gods, the lord of the world, [and all ye
other] great gods, guiders of heaven and earth, whose onset
is opposition and combat, who have magnified the kingdom
of Tiglath-Pileser, the prince, the chosen of the desire of
your hearts, the exalted shepherd . . . with a crown supreme,
yon have clothed him : to rule over the land of Bel mightily
you have established him. . . .
Tiglath-Pileser the powerful king, the king of hosts who
has no rival, the king of the four zones, the king of all the
kinglets, the lord of lords, the shepherd prince, the king of
kings, the exalted prophet, to whom by proclamation of
Sarnas [the Sun-God] the illustrious scepter has been given
as a gift . . . the illustrious prince whose glory has over-
whelmed all regions, the mighty destroyer, who like the
rush of a flood is made strong against the hostile land, he
has destroyed the foeinen of Assur [i.e. Assyria],
Countries, mountains, fortresses and kinglets, the enemies
of Assur I have conquered and their territories I have made
to submit. With sixty kings I have contended furiously,
and power and rivalry over them I displayed. A rival in
the combat, a confronter in the battle, I have not. To the
land of Assyria I have added land, to its men I have added
22 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
men : the boundary of my own land I have enlarged, and
all their lands I have conquered.
At the beginning of my reign 20,000 men of the Muskaya x
and their five kings to their strength trusted and came
down : the land of Kummukh [along the upper Euphrates]
they seized.
Trusting in Assur my lord I assembled my chariots and
armies. There upon I delayed not. The mountains of Kasi-
yara, a difficult region, I crossed. With their 20,000 fighting
men, and their five kings in the land of Kummukh I con-
tended. A destruction of them I made. The bodies of
their warriors in destructive battle like the Inundator [the
god Eimmon] I overthrew. Their corpses I spread over
the valleys and the high places of the mountains. TJieir
h$ads I cut off: at the sides of their cities I heaped them
like mounds. Their spoil, their property, their goods,
to a countless number I brought forth. Six thousand men,
the relics of their armies, which before my weapons had
fled, and took my feet. 2 I laid hold upon them and counted
them among the men of my own country.
[After telling at great length about his numerous conquests,
rebels crushed, cities taken, kings reduced and general slaughter
of the enemy, Tiglath-Pileser boasts of his feats as a royal hunter :
a matter wherein an Assyrian king would take almost as much
pride as in his conquests.]
Under the protection of [the god] Uras, who loves me,
from young wild bulls, powerful and large in the deserts,
with ray mighty bow, a lasso of iron and my pointed spear,
their lives I ended. Their hides and their horns to my city
of Assur I brought.
Ten powerful male elephants ... I slew. Four ele-
phants alive I captured. Their hides and their teeth along
with the live elephants I brought to my city of Assur.
1 A people adjacent to Assyria. 2 Embraced them, asking for mercy.
701 B.C.] THE WAR OF SENNACHERIB 23
One hundred twenty lions, with my stout heart in the
conflict of my heroism on my feet I slew, and 800 lions in
my chariot with javelins (?) I slaughtered.
12. How SENNACHERIB WAGED WAR ox HEZEKIAH,
KING OF JUDAH
Inscription, " Records of the Past " (2d series), vol. VI, p. 90
In 701 B.C. Sennacherib, one of the most ruthless and aggressive
of all the kings of Assyria (reigned 705 to 681 B.C.), attacked
Hezekiah, king of Judah. (Compare in Bible, II Kings, chap.
XVIII.) The treatment Hezekiah received was very merciful
compared with the fate of most of Sennacherib's enemies, and
shows that he was able to make a very stout resistance. The de-
struction of the Assyrian host by some strange pestilence (II
Kings, chap. XIX) seems to have occurred during a later attack,
directed especially against Egypt. Naturally Sennacherib in his
inscriptions says nothing of such a disaster. .
The treatment Sennacherib boasts to have inflicted on the Elam-
ites shows what Assyrian kings considered redounded to their
highest glory.
[From the great inscription of Sennacherib : reciting the nu-
merous kings whom he had vanquished or made tributary: he
Hezekiah of Judah, who had not submitted to my yoke, I
besieged 46 of his strong' cities, castles and small cities :
... by casting down their walls, and advancing the war
engines, by an assault of the light-armed soldiers, by
breaches, by battering and by axes (?) I took them. 200,150
people, young and old, male and female, I brought out from
them ; with horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep
without number. I counted them, as spoil.
Hezekiah himself I shut up like a caged bird in Jerusa-
lem, his royal city : I fortified the walls against him, and
whosoever came out of the gates I turned back. After I
had plundered his cities, I divided them from his land and
24 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
gave them to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, to Padi, king of Ek
ron, and to Tsil-Bal, king of Gaza, and thus I diminished
his territory. To the former year's tribute, I added the
tribute of [subject] alliance to my lordship and laid that
upon him.
Hezekiah himself was overwhelmed with the fear of the
brightness of my lordship. The Arabians and his other
faithful warriors, whom as a defense for Jerusalem his
royal city, he had introduced, fell into fear. 30 talents of
gold and 800 talents of silver, precious stones . . . large
lapis lazuli, couches of ivory, thrones of ivory, ivory, valu-
able wood of every kind, a heavy treasure, and his
daughters, his harein women, the young men and young
women [of his household] I caused to be brought after me to
Nineveh, the city of my lordship. And he sent me ambas-
sadors to give tribute and to pay homage.
[In dealing with the conquered king of Elam and his men, Sen-
nacherib boasts thus of his ruthlessness :]
Their necks I cut off like lambs, their precious lives I cut
through like a knot. . . . The chargers of my chariot swam
in the masses of blood as in a river, . . . blood and filth
ran down its wheel. With the corpses of their warriors as
with herbs I filled the field. I mutilated my captives hor-
ribly. I cut off their hands. Their bracelets of gold and
silver which were on their arms I plucked off. With sharp
swords I cut off their noses.
13. AN INSCBIPTION OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR
Inscription, " Records of the Past (2d series), vol. m, p. 104 ff. '
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (reigned about 604 to 561 B.O.)
was the virtual creator of Babylon as a surpassingly great city.
Earlier, although a place of much importance, it had been over-
shadowed by Nineveh; but now it held the position of the lead-
ing city of the Orient, and retained its dignity down to the rise of
575 B.C.] NEBUCHADNEZZAR OF BABYLON 25
Alexandria, after which it rapidly decayed. Nebuchadnezzar
boasts of his glory and mighty deeds in a sufficiently Tainglorious
inscription ; but there is some reason for believing that he was
less bloodthirsty and war-loving than the Assyrian kings to whose
power he, in a certain sense, succeeded.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the prince exalted, the
favorite of Marduk, the pontiff supreme; the beloved of
Nabu, the serene, the possessor of wisdom, who the way of
their godhead regardeth, who feareth their lordship, the
servant unwearied, . . . the wise, the prayerful, the main-
tainer of Esagilla and Ezida, 1 the chiefest son of Nabupalas-
sar, king of Babylon, am I.
[The king goes on to state how from his youth he worshiped
Marduk, the guardian god of Babylon, and devoted himself to his
service.]
The prince Marduk, the leader glorious, the open-eyed
[chieftain?] of the gods, heard my supplication, and re-
ceived my prayers. Yea, he made gracious his supreme
lordship, the fear of his godhead he implanted in my heart.
... I worshiped his lordship. In his high trust, to far-
off lands, to distant hills, from the Upper Sea to the Lower
Sea, by immense journeys, through blocked ways, a place
where the path is broken, where feet go not, a road of hard-
ships, a journey of straits, I pursued, and the unyielding I
reduced, and I fettered the rebels. The land I ordered
aright, and the people I made to thrive. Bad and good
among the people I removed.
Silver, gold, the glitter of precious stones, copper, valu-
able (?) wood, cedar, whatsoever thing is precious, in a
large abundance, the produce of mountains, the fullness of
seas, a rich present, a splendid gift to my city of Babylon
into [Marduk's] presence I brought.
The cell 2 of the lord of the gods, Marduk, I made to
i Probably notable temples are here mentioned.
a A kind of "Holy of Holies."
26 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
glisten like suns, even the wall thereof. With gold, and pre-
cious stones and alabaster, the habitations of the house [of
the god] I overlaid.
[The king goes on to tell at length how he built or beautified
temples to all the great gods.]
Imgur-bel and Niniitti-bel the great ramparts of Baby-
lon, Nabupolassar, king of Babylon, the father that
begat me, had made but had not finished the work
of them. The moat he had dug, and the two strong
walls with bitumen and burnt brick had constructed along
its bank : the dikes ... he had made and a fence of burnt
brick on the other side of the Euphrates : but he had not
finished the rest ... As for me, his eldest son, the beloved
of his heart, I finished these great ramparts of Babylon.
Beside the scarp of its moat the two strong walls with bitu-
men and burnt brick I built, and with the wall which niy
father had constructed I joined them, and the city, for cover,
I carried them round. . . .
Through the raising [of the walls] the portals on both
sides of the gates had become low. These portals I pulled
down, and over against the water, 1 their foundation with
bitumen and burnt brick I firmly laid : and with burnt brick
and gleaming . . . stone, whereof bulls and dreadful ser-
pents were made . , . cunningly I constructed. Strong
cedar beams for the roofing of them I laid on. Doors of
cedar with plating of bronze, lintels and hinges, and copper-
work, in its gates I set up. Strong bulls of copper, and
dreadful serpents standing upright, on their thresholds
I erected. Those portals [also] with carven work for the
gazings of the multitude of the people I caused to be
filled.
[The king now speaks of the splendid palace he built in Baby-
lon for his residence.]
i Probably the moat by the walls is referred to.
606 B.C.] DENUNCIATION OP NINEVEH 27
I reared it high as the wooded hills. Stout cedars for the
roofing of it I laid on. Doors of cedar vnth a plating of
bronze, sills and hinges of copperwork, in its gates I set
up. Silver, gold, precious stones, everything that is prized,
or is magnificent; substance, -wealth, the ornaments of
majesty, I heaped up -within it. Strength, splendor, and
[my] royal treasure, I hoarded -within it.
[The inscription concludes with an invocation to Marduk.]
At thy behest, most merciful Marduk, may the house
that I have made [in Babylon] endure : and with the fullness
of it may I be satisfied, and within it may hoar age reach
me ! May I be satisfied with offspring ! Of the kings of the
world, and of all men, within this house may I receive
their heavy tribute ! . , . My posterity within it, forever-
more may they rule over the Black-heads. 1
14. A DENUNCIATION OF NINEVEH
The Bible, Book of Nahum, chap, m, vs. 1-19
Nahuin, the Hebrew Prophet, seems to have uttered this denun-
ciation of Assyria and her great capital just before the empire and
city, which had terrorized the world so long, were about to fall be-
fore the allied Medes and Babylonians in 606 B.C. In his impas-
sioned utterance there is given heart-felt expression to that spirit
of unrelenting hate, which the long-drawn career of oppression and
cruelty on the part of Assyria had engendered. Nahum was not
speaking for Judah only, but for every adjacent land, when he
gloried over the calamity of "the bloody city." Considering the
length of time it lasted, probably no great monarchy ever wrought
so much harm and so little good as Assyria. Its luxuries and
refinements were all borrowed from conquered lands j its insatiable
love of conquest and slaughter was its own.
. Woe to the bloody city !
. Full of lies is it, and of plunder !
i I.e. the people of Babylonia.
28 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
Limit is not to the spoil !
[Hear ye] the noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling
of the wheels.
The horses come prancing: the chariots come bounding
[to the onset.]
The horseman lif teth up his flashing sword and his glit-
tering spear. There is a heap of slain, and numberless
corpses corpses without end ! Men stumble over the
corpses.
Because of the manifold iniquities of [Assyria] the
wanton : the mistress of witchcrafts : she who hath sold
nations by her vileness, and peoples through her black
art:
Behold I am against thee, saith Jehovah of Hosts.
[Men shall say] " Nineveh is laid waste I Who shall be-
wail her f Whence shall I seek comforters for thee ?"
Art thou [oh ! Nineveh] better than populous No-Ammon
[Egyptian Thebes] which lay in the midst of her rivers . . .
whose wall was from the sea ... [and] Ethiopia and Egypt
were her strength? . . .
Yet she was carried away into captivity : her young children
also were dashed in pieces at the top of the streets, and they
cast lots for her honorable men : and all her great men were
bound in chains.
So, too, thou also shalt become drunken, and overcome.
Thou shalt seek for a refuge from thy enemy.
All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first
ripe fruit. If they be shaken they shall even fall into the
mouth of the eater.
Lo ! thy folk are like women : wide open stands thy gate
to thine enemies : the fire devoureth thy bulwarks.
[Go then, Assyrians, and] draw your . waters for the
siege : fortify your fortresses : go into the clay pits and
tread the clay : take up the brick molds [to repair the
walls !]
650 B.C.] A PHYSICIAN'S REPORT 29
[Nevertheless] the fire shall devour thee: the sword
shall cut thee off: it shall eat thy city up like a canker-
worm. . . .
Thy shepherds slumber, King of Assyria !
Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust !
Thy peoples are scattered upon the mountain, and there is
none to assemble them !
Healing comes not to thy bruise.
Thy wound is grievous.
All that hear the news of thy fate clap their hands over
thee : for whom hath not thy wickedness afflicted continually.
15. (A.) LETTER OF AN ASSYRIAN PHYSICIAN REPORTING
UPON A PATIENT
Inscription, " Records of the Past " (2d series), vol. H, p. 180
The following is addressed to an Assyrian king (date uncertain)
by a physician. The patient reported upon is possibly a prince
and a relation of the king. The tablet, which was found in the so-
called " Record Office " in the palace at Nineveh, gives an example
of the flowery style of address used in Assyrian letters, also of the
practical common sense that seems to have characterized the medical
science of the day.
To the King my lord, thy servant Arad-Nana. May
there be peace for ever and ever to the king my lord. May
the god Ninep, and the goddess Gula give soundness of heart
and soundness of mind, and soundness of flesh to the king
my lord. Peace forever.
To reduce the general inflammation of his forehead I tied a
bandage upon it. His face is swollen. Yesterday as formerly
I opened the wound which had been received in the midst of
it. As for the bandage which was over the swelling, matter
was upon the bandage the size of the tip of the little finger.
Thy gods, if they can restore unto him the whole flesh of
his body, cause thou to invoke, and his mouth will cry:
30 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
" Peace forever ! May the heart of the king my lord be
good I " He will live seven or eight days. 1
(B.) EEPORT OF AN OFFICIAL TO THE KING OF ASSYRIA
ON THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SOME G-OLD
[From the " Record Office "at Nineveh. Name of King unknown and date
missing.] " Records of the Past " (2d series), vol. II, p. 184
To the king my lord, thy servant Arad-Nabu. May there
be peace to the king my lord : may the gods Assur, Sa-
mas, [Bel and the rest] . . . lovers of thy rule, let the king
my lord live for a hundred years. May they satisfy the
king my lord with old age and offspring.
The gold which in the month Tisi, the ittu* the prefect
of the palace, and I with them, missed 2 talents of stand-
ard gold and 6 talents of gold not standard (this gold) the
hands of the chief of the rnetal workers (?) placed in the
house. He sealed it up ; and the gold for the image of
the kings, and for the image of the king's mother he gave
not. Let the king my lord give command to the ittu and
the prefect of the palace that they may discover the gold.
The beginning of the month is good [to begin the work ?]
Let them give it to the men. Let them do the work.
16. BABYLONISH BELIEFS IN OMENS BY ECLIPSES
Inscription, Jastrow's Translation (altered) in Hastings' Dictionary of
the Bible, vol. V, p. 558
The Babylonians had a rather remarkable knowledge of astron-
omy, but they put it to very unscientific uses ; e.g. the tablet
here quoted shows how carefully they observed eclipses in order
to be able to divine the future. To the Babylonians we owe the
pseudo-science of astrology; a superstition of course by no means
dead to-day.
1 The case is evidently hopeless. The only 'chance , thinks the physician,
is an appeal by the king to the gods.
2 Some government functionary whose duties are not quite clear*
540 B.C.] SOURCE OF AN OLD DATE 31
If on the 1st day of the month Tishri the sun is darkened,
war will rage betwixt the kings.
If on the 9th day, Adad [the storm god] will raise his
cry [i.e. there will be a great storm.]
If on the 16th day, there will be plenty of food in the
land, and the canals will be full of water.
If on the 18th day, there will be peace for the king.
If on the 20fch day, the country will be diminished.
If on the 21st day, sheer ruin is forewarned for the
[whole ?] country.
If on the 29th day, in that same year the king will
perish, and calamity overtake the land.
If [during the whole month] the sun is darkened, the
gods will smite the whole country with ruin.
17. How ARCHJEOLO GISTS GET ONE OF OUR OLDEST DATES
Inscription, " Records of the Past " (3d series), vol. V, p. 173
The following quotation from an inscription by Kabonidus,
the last king of Babylon before the Persian Conquest (538 B.C.),
is of great importance. Assuming the Babylonian priests kept
careful chronological records in their temples (and there is ground
to believe that they did), we here have evidence fixing the date of
the ancient king Naram-Sin, and indicating that his famous father,
Sargon the First, was at the height of his power shortly after
3800 B.O. Surely very respectable antiquity ! 1
[Speaking of an ancient temple to Samas the sun god, which
the king was repairing,]
The wall of this temple had fallen in, and I threw
down the temple and sought for its ancient foundation
stone. 18 cubits deep I excavated the ground [and found
it]. The foundation cylinder of Naram-Sin, son of Sargon,
which for 8200 years none of the kings who went before me
i Recent investigators assert that this date is possibly several hundred
years too early. Even then, Sargon I reigned near the year 3000 B.C.
32 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
had seen, Samas, the great lord of Bit-Uri, the temple which
his heart loves, showed unto ine. [Then] with silver, gold,
precious stones, the products of the forest, spices and cedar,
with joy and gladness ... [I restored the temple] I
caused 5000 strong cedars to be brought for its roof. Lofty
doors of cedar, posts and hinges, I hung in its gates.
18. AN ASSYRIAN CITY
Maspero, " Ancient Egypt and Assyria, 1 ' p. 198 ff. (abridged)
As in the case of Egypt, as much of our knowledge of Assyria
comes from the pictures and sculptures left us, as from the
written records ; with the aid of the great bas-reliefs discovered
by such archaeologists as Layard and Botta, and by a skillful
piecing together of other evidence, M. Maspero has reconstructed
this description of Dur-Sargina, a city founded near Nineveh,
by Sargon (II) the Great (reigned about 722 to 705 B.C.).
There are eight gates, two on each side. They open
between two towers which leave only a space for the en-
trance itself. Each of them is dedicated to one of the gods
of the city and is named after it. [At the entrance ways]
two gigantic [stone] bulls with human heads stand at the
entrance of the passage, the face and chest turned towards
the outside : the body placed against the inner wall. They
seem waiting for an enemy, and are accompanied by two
winged genii half concealed behind them. The arch
which separates them, and which is supported by their
miters, is decorated by a band of enameled bricks, upon
which more genii facing each other in pairs are holding
fir cones : a many colored rosette is in the center.
The transport and placement of these stone monsters
proved no light task. The blocks were quarried in the
mountains of Kurdistan, and were then brought down to
the banks of the Zab. 1 Here they were roughly hewn
1 A river near Dur-Sargina and Nineveh.
710 B.C.] AN ASSYRIAN CITY 33
into shape so as to lighten the weight, then placed on
sledges, drawn by squadrons of foreign prisoners who after-
ward with cords and levers hoisted them upon their stands
where the sculptors finished them. They are now the
mystic guardians of the city, which ward off not only the
attacks of men, but the invasion of evil spirits and per-
nicious maladies. Every day the old men and idlers as-
semble at their feet. The judge of the district sometimes
holds a sitting and gives judgment there. The merchants
drive their bargains and discuss their business, whilst the
politicians exchange the last news from abroad [the revolt
of Egypt, or how the barbarous Cimmerians have killed
the king of Lydia.]
[In the city] the streets which start from the gates [are
carefully paved and have sidewalks.] The houses that
border on them are usually one storied. The door is high
and narrow. It seems to be concealed in one corner of the
facade. Scarcely a window breaks the unity of the wall,
and the terraced roofs are surmounted by conical domes, or
half cupolas which open inwards.
Strangers lodge in vast inns situated near the ramparts.
There is no outward distinction between them and the private
houses. The traveler enters and finds himself in a large
rectangular court: in the center is a well shaded by a syca-
more tree. All around it are stories of small rooms, one
above the other, in which the guests spend the night, and
some large ones which are used for stables for the beasts
of burden and storehouses for the merchandise.
Towards the center of the town, the houses become richer
and more beautiful : traffic increases, luxurious chariots are
seen amongst the crowd of pedestrians. [Thanks to the
policy of the Assyrians of transplanting the inhabitants of
conquered countries all manner of races and nations are to
be seen in the crowd dark Hebrews, fair-haired Aryan
Medes, etc.]
34 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
19. AN ASSYRIAN PALACE
Abridged from Maspero, Ancient Egypt and Assyria, p. 202
Within Dur-Sargina rose the majestic palace of Sargon the
Great, which is thus reconstructed by M. Maspero.
The royal palace is upon the northeast side of the city,
half within, half without the inclosure. [It is set upon a
lofty esplanade of brick work], a hillock raised by the labor
of man which raises the foot of the walls far above the sur-
rounding roofs. It is accessible from the city only : pedes-
trians reach it by a double staircase constructed in front of
the platform, horsemen and carriages by a greatly sloping
ascent. The king dwells there as in a turret, whence he
can see the whole country, and which he could defend long
after the city had been taken. [At the two chief gates are
high masts with the royal standard, and giant sculptured
bulls guard the sides of the portals.]
The immense court into which the gates open is a public
place which tradesmen of every kind, suppliants and even mere
sightseers, enter without the least difficulty. Thousands of
persons are attached to the sovereign's household : some as
chamberlains, treasurers, scribes, eunuchs, military chiefs :
others as footmen, soldiers, and cooks. There is a perpetual
movement of detachments relieving guard, couriers coming
or going with dispatches : officials going to or coming from
an audience : files of donkeys with provisions : and morn-
ing and evening hundreds of male and female slaves descend
in procession to draw from the tributaries of the Khosr
[river] the water needed by such a multitude. . . . [There
are vast storerooms, and magazines for weapons, and provi-
sions around this court.]
A small door in the southern angle of the court leads to
the harem. Assyrian women of the lower class enjoy al-
most unlimited independence, but [women of higher rank
possess next to no liberty. The queens are the greatest
2240 B.C.] THE CODE OF HAMMURABI 35
prisoners of all] they remain invisible during most of their
lives, receiving only their family and household.
When Sargon founded his city he had three legitimate
wives, and to each he granted a separate establishment : his
harem therefore contained three compartments or rather
three houses. The internal arrangements of these houses
is precisely similar: an anteroom wider than it is long, a
drawing-room, of which one half is unroofed, the other half
is covered with a semidoine, a staircase with eleven steps,
and the bedroom. The walls are coated with white stucco,
and covered with a black plinth : the floor is flagged or
carefully bricked : here and there are carpets, stools, arm-
chairs, low tables, and in the alcove a wooden bed, raised
upon feet with its mattress and coverings.
After marriage the life of the queens is passed in this
prison: dress, embroidery, needlework, and housekeeping,
long conversations with their slaves, the exchange of visits,
and the festivals, with dancing and singing with which
they entertain one another serve for occupation and amuse-
ment. From time to time the king passes some hours among
them, or invites them to dine in his gardens. . . . [Not-
withstanding this monotonous life a thousand intrigues are
carried on : the wives are always at war among themselves :
the eunuchs take sides : and sometimes a rival is taken off
by poison.]
20. SELECTIONS FROM THE CODE OF HAMMURABI
Inscription, Translation based upon Translation by C. H. W. Johns in Hast-
ings 1 Dictionary of the Bible, vol. V, p. 599 ff .
The code of Hammurabi is the most remarkable and complete
code of ancient law which we have, until we come to the legislation
recorded in the Pentateuch. Hammurabi was a famous king of
Babylonia who lived about 2240 B.C. He won victories over the
neighboring power of Elam, and attempts have been made to iden-
36 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
tify him with the Amraphel mentioned in the Bible (Genesis,
chap. XIV), but this is extremely uncertain.
The code is sufficiently elaborate to meet the needs of a dis-
tinctly complex society, and gives us a high idea of the degree of
civilization existing in the Tigro-Euphrates valley in the third
millennium B.C. A most interesting study can be made by com-
paring this code (here quoted only in small part) with the Mosaic
legislation, and noting the similarities and dissimilarities. [Two
hundred and eighty-two titles are preserved : of which only a few
typical ones can here be cited.]
If a man in a case under trial, as a witness to slander, has
lied, and has not proved the word which he has spoken, if
the case involve a capital penalty, let him be put to
death.
If a man has stolen an ox, or a sheep, or an ass or a pig,
or a ship from the temple, or the palace ; let him requite
thirty fold. But if he have stolen from a poor man he shall
repay ten fold. 1 If the robber be not able to pay, let him
die the death.
If a man [bringing a lawsuit] has not his witnesses on hand,
the judge shall assign him a fixed time [for trial] up to six
months : and if within six months he has not produced his
witnesses, then he has slandered [in his charges.] He him-
self then must bear the penalty.
If any one turns bandit and is captured let him die the
'death.
If the bandit has escaped, the man who has been robbed
shall recount before God [i.e. state under oath] what he has
lost, and the city and governor in whose land and district
the robbery occurred, shall repay him what he lost. 2
If any one has given his field for produce to a farmer,
and has received the produce of his field, and afterward a
1 This statute surely makes one law for the rich, and another law for
the poor.
2 This law is evidently to prevent local magistrates from giving aid and
protection to robbers.
2240 B.C.] THE CODE OF HAMMURABI 37
thunderstorm has ravaged the field or destroyed the produce,
the loss is the farmer's. 1
[But] if the owner has not received [his share of] the prod-
uce of his field, or has given the field either for one half or
one third of the corn that was in the field, the farmer and
owner of the field shall share [any loss] according to the
special wording of their contract.
If any one shall give silver, gold, or anything else to
another party on deposit, all things so deposited he shall
show to witnesses, and fix the bonds [required.]
If without witnesses or bonds he has given on deposit, and
the party receiving later disputes his claim, he has no
redress :
[But] if ... he has given before witnesses, and the other
party has disputed his claim [to repayment]: the latter
person is liable, and whatever property he has disputed he
shall restore double.
If a man has set his face against his son, and declared to
the judge; "I intend to cut oS my son," then the judge
shall seek his reasons : and if the son be not guilty of a
great crime such as destroys his rights to sonship, the father
may not cut him off.
If a man has caused a man of rank to lose his eye, one of
his own eyes must be struck out.
If he has shattered the limb of a man of rank, let his own
limb be shattered.
If he has caused a poor man to lose an eye, or has
shattered a limb, let him pay one maneh of silver [f 32.00].
If any one has smitten the cheek of a man his superior in
rank, he shall be whipped in the public assembly with 60
strokes with the cowhide lash.
[But] if being a man of rank he so smite another man of
rank his equal, let him pay one maneh of silver.
iThe farmer must stand the entire loss of his part of the crop, provided
the landlord has already received his share.
38 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
[But] if a poor man so smite a poor man, let him pay
10 shekels of silver.
[But] if the servant of a man of rank so strike a freeman,
let his ear be cut off.
[Many other penalties for a long catalog of crimes, arranged on
a similar scale, follow.]
If a physician has treated a man of rank with a bronze
lancet for a severe wound, and caused the nobleman to die,
or has removed a cataract from the eye of a nobleman using
a bronze lancet, and caused the loss of the eye, let his
hands be cut off.
[If he so treat a slave] and the slave die, he shall render
back slave for slave.
If a physician cure the shattered limb of a man of rank,
... the patient shall give him five shekels of silver.
If the patient is the son of a poor man, he shall give three
shekels of silver.
If a cow doctor or an ass doctor has treated a cow or an
ass for a severe wound, and affected a cure, the owner there-
of shall give the healer one sixth of a silver shekel as his fee. 1
If any one hire a working ox for one year, he shall pay for
its hire four gur of corn.
If any one hire, an ox or an ass, and a lion kill it in the
open field, the owner must stand the loss.
[But] if any one hire an ox, and through negligence or his
beatings it die, then he must render back ox for ox to the
owner.
[A list of regulations fixing the price for all kinds of personal
service, wages, and things connected therewith follows.]
These judgments of righteousness did Hammurabi the
mighty king confirm, and caused the land to take on a sure
government and a beneficent rule.
iBut if the creature died, the unlucky veterinary was liable for one
fourth of its value. A shekel was about 64 cents.
545 B.C.] A BABYLONIAN LAWSUIT 39
21. A BABYLONIAN LAWSUIT RELATING TO A JEW
Inscription, "Records of the Past " (2d scries), vol. I, p. 160
The tablet here quoted will give an idea of the Babylonians'
legal practices and documents. " Barachiel " seems to have been a
Jew, no doubt one of the " Captivity " carried away by Nebuchad-
nezzar, when he took Jerusalem (586 B.C.).
Barachiel is a slave of ransom 1 belonging to GagS the
daughter of , whom in the 35th, year of Nebuchadnez-
zar (about 570 B.C.) from Akhi-nuri ... for the third of a
maneh and 8 shekels she bought.
Recently he has instituted an action saying thus : " I am
the son of a noble ancestor of the family of Belrimanni, who
have joined the hands in matrimony of Samas : mudammig
the son of Nabu-nadin-akh and the woman Qusadu the
daughter of Akhi-nuri, even L "
In the presence of the high priest, the nobles and the
judges of Nabonidus king of Babylon, they pleaded the
case and listened to their arguments in regard to the obli-
gation of servitude of [said Barachiel].
From the 35th year of Nebuhadnezzar to the 7th year of
Nabonidus [549 B.C.] he had been sold for money, [and] had
been put in pledge, and as the dowry of Nubta the daughter
of G-agS had been given. Afterward Nubta had alienated
him by a sealed contract, in exchange for a house and slaves
to Zamama-nadin her son, and to Idina her husband had
given him. f
They [the judges] read the evidence and thus said to Bara-
chiel, " Prove to us thy noble ancestry."
Barachiel retracted his former statement, saying, " Twice
have I run away from the house of my master, but many
people were present and I was seen. I was afraid, and I
said accordingly I am the son of a noble ancestor. My
1 I.e. he was entitled to accumulate a private fortune in order to
emancipate himself.
40 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
citizenship exists not; I am the 'slave of ransom ; of Gaga.
Nubta her daughter received me as her dowry. Nubta
alienated me by a sealed contract, and to Zamainarnadin her
son and IdinS, her husband gave me in exchange : and after
the death of Gaga and Nubta, to Itti-Marduk-baladh, for
silver I was sold.
"I am a slave. Go now, pronounce sentence about me."
The high priest, the nobles and the judges heard the
evidence and restored Barachiel to his condition as a ' slave
of ransom,'
22. AN AKKADIAN HYMN TO THE SETTING SXTN
Inscription, " Records of the Past " (3d series), vol. U, p. 192
This hymn is in the Akkadian language, the most ancient lan-
guage of the Tigro-Euphrates peoples. The tablet we have seems
to date from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar the Great (about 580
B.C.). Along with it goes an interlinear translation into the reg-
ular Assyrio-Babylonian tongue. This chant is one of the oldest
religious poems in existence. No scholar dare say for how many
centuries it bad been intoned from the summits of the viggurats
(the pyramid-like brick temple-towers) at sundown at every shrine
of the Sun God, before it was recorded as here, in the days of
the last great king of Babylon.
Sun, in the middle of the sky, at thy setting,
May the bright gates welcome thee favorably.
May the door of heaven be docile to thee,
May the god who is thy forerunner, thy messenger, mark
the way !
In E-bara, 1 the seat of thy royalty, he makes thy greatness
shine forth.
May the Moon, thy beloved spouse, come to meet thee with
joy.
May thy heart rest in peace,
i E-bara was the name of a temple of the Sun God.
650 B.C.] STORY OF THE CREATION 41
May the glory of thy godhead remain with thee.
Powerful hero, Sun, shine gloriously !
Lord of E-bara, direct in thy road thy foot rightly,
Sun, in making thy way, take the path marked for thy
rays!
Thou art the lord of judgments over the nations.
[A Postscript.]
This is the hymn to the setting sun,
The chanter [at the temple] says it after the beginning of
the night.
23. THE ASSYRIAN STORY or THE CREATIOX
Inscription, " Records of the Past " (2d series), vol. I, p. 133
The tablet preserving this story of the creation dates from about
650 B.C., being among the documents discovered in the so-called
"Royal Library of Nineveh"- but it is fair to assume that the
narrative here given is many centuries older. The account has at
some points suggestive similarities to the Hebrew account in Gen-
esis : the later part of the extract here given is taken up with a
description of the combat between Bel-Marduk and the dragon
Tiamat, one of the most famous stories in Babylonian- Assyrian
mythology.
At that time the heaven above had not yet been announcedj
or the earth beneath recorded. The unopened deep was theii
generator, Muminu-Tiamat [the Chaos of the Sea] was the
mother of them all. The waters were even bosomed as one,
and the cornfield was unharvested, the pasture was ungrown.
At that time the gods had not appeared, any of them : ty
no name were they recorded, no destiny (had they fixed)
Then the [great] gods were created, Lakhmu and Lakhami;
issued forth [the first], until they grew up [when] Ansai
and Kisar 1 were created. Long were the days, extended
1 Ansar and Kisar seem to have been the "upper" and the "lowe
firmament. ' '
42 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
[was the time, until] the gods Anu, [Bel and Ea were born,}
Ansar and Kisar [gave them birth].
[Before the younger gods could find a comfortable habitation for
themselves on the earth it was needful to destroy Tiamat, the
"Dragon of Chaos," and all her monstrous offspring; this task
was undertaken by Bel-Marduk, the sun god of Babylon, who thus
narrates his victory.]
The strong one [Marduk] the glorious, who desists not
day nor night, the exciter to battle, was disturbed in his
heart. Then they marshalled their forces: they created
darkness. . . . [And then, says Marduk, " The dragon] the
creatress of them all I pursued with my weapons unsur-
passed: then did the great snakes bite. With my teeth
sharpened unsparingly did I bite. With poisoned breath
like blood their bodies I filled. The raging vampires I
clothed with terror. I lifted up. the lighting flash, on high
I launched it. ...
" I made ready the dragon, the mighty serpent, and the god
Lakhamu, the great reptile, the deadly beast, a^d the scor-
pion man, the devouring reptiles, the fish man, and the
gazelle god ; lifting up my weapons that spare not, fearless
of battle, strong through the law that (yields ?) not before
the foe !
" The eleven-fold offspring like him their messenger were
utterly overthrown. Among the gods her forces "(were
routed ?). I humbled the god Kingu [the husband of Tia-
mat] in the sight of his consort the queen.
" They who went in front before the army (I smote), lift-
ing up my weapons, a snare for Tiamat."
[The poet now breaks out in praise of Bel-Marduk.]
Marduk, thou art glorious among the great gods ! Thy
destiny is unrivalled. . . . Since that day unchanged is
thy command. High and low entreat thy hand ! May the
3000 B.C.] BABYLONISH PRAYERS 43
word that goes forth from thy mouth be established. . . .
None among the gods has surpassed thy power at the time
when thy hand founded the shrine of the god of the sky !
24. BABYLONISH PRAYERS AND PSALMS
Inscription, Jastrow, in Hastings' " Dictionary of the Bible,*' vol. V,
p. 564 fi. [Considerably altered in phrasing]
The ancient Babylonians have left us a large number of prayers
and psalms, sometimes expressing a considerable depth of religious
feeling. It is worth noticing (1) that they show a consciousness
of the dependence of man upon God, unlike some o^her forms of
paganism; (2) that in them the sense of personal sw has a very
distinct utterance. Comparing them with the Hebrew prayers
and psalms it is interesting to observe both their similarities and
dissimilarities.
A Prayer by Gudea, a King in Southern Babylonia about
8000 A.D., to the Goddess Ban
my queen, lofty daughter of Ann,
Who furnishes proper counsel, whose is the highest rank
among the gods,
thou who bestowest very life upon the land. . . .
Thou it is who art queen: the mother thou, who hast
founded Shirpula.
That people whereon thou lookest in merciful favor prosper.
Long is the life of the hero whom thou dost regard favor-
ably.
No mother have I my mother thou art !
No father have I my father thou art !
A Prayer to Samas the Sun God
Lord, illuminator of the darkness, thou whom the wide sky
revealest,
Merciful god, exalter of the humble, protector of the weak :
All the mighty gods look upwards to thy light. . . .
44 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
All human-kind thou guidest together, as if they were but
one man.
Eagerly they look up to thy sunlight, lifting their heads on
high.
At thy dayspring, they rejoice, they exult.
The light art thou of the far ends of the heavens.
Thou art the standard for the wide-stretching earth,
All the hosts of men gaze up to thee in joy.
From a Prayer to the Goddess Istar
Take away [I beseech thee] my sin, my iniquity, my trans-
gression and my sin.
Forgive them : accept my petition. . . .
Guide thou my steps that I may walk proudly among my
fellows.
Command! and at thy word may the god that has wrath at
me be appeased.
Yea, may the wrathful goddess turn favorably towards me !
May the brazier that smoked darkly flame high again !
May my quenchfed torch be rekindled.
Portion of a Prayer by Nebuchadnezzar the Great of Babylon
to Marduk
eternal sovereign lord of the universe, grant that the
name of the king whom thou lovest . . . may flourish, even
according to thy will. Lead him in the right path, . . .
Thou hast created me [Nebuchadnezzar] and to me hast
committed the lordship over the peoples. According to thy
mercy, lord, which thou sheddest upon all, may thy
sovereignty be merciful! Set thou the fear of thy divine
power in my heart ! Grant unto me that which is good in
thy sight for thou it is who hast given me life. 1
1 According to some writers this prayer of Nebuchadnezzar marks the
highest ethical and religious development of the Babylonians.
CHAPTER III
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
" The literary and archaeological remains of the Persian Empire
are not great. We know of the nation of Cyrus and Darius mainly
by their relations with other peoples, particularly with the Greeks,
and our views of them are liable to distortion owing to this one-
sided evidence. Undoubtedly the Persians were Orientals and
subject to many of the Oriental infirmities : their government was
a despotism; they were original in none of the fine arts, and
learned only too rapidly the vices of the Babylonians, Egyptians,
and other races which they subjugated. The conquest of Greece
by them would have been a vast calamity ; nevertheless in judg-
ing them it must never be forgotten that they were the first Aryan
folk to build up an abiding empire. At the outset they appear
as a .high-minded, unspoiled race issuing from the uplands of Asia
with much of the noble simplicity and chivalry which characterized
the later Germans. Their religion was superior to any other
Asiatic faith save that of the Jews. Even their abject devotion
to their king has its finer side, with its display of absolute obedi-
ence and loyalty. They were in short a race quite worthy to
conquer Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt, and to measure spears with
the Hellenes for the leadership of the world.
25. How CYRUS TOOK BABYLON
Cylinder Inscription, " Records of the Past " (2d series), vol. V, p. 165 ff.
Cyrus the Persian took Babylon probably in 538 B.C. The
last king of Babylonia (Nabonidus) with his crown prince Belshazzar
seems to have succumbed after very little fighting. Probably
they were more or less usurpers, and did not have the support
of part of the priesthood; while Cyrus, although a Zoroastrian,
45
46 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
granted full tolerance, and affected to patronize the Babylonian
divinities. The document here quoted is part of the official version
put out after the capture, in which the susceptibilities of the
citizens of Babylon are treated very tenderly, and Cyrus's coming
is represented as something done at the behest of the local god
Marduk.
Marduk [god of Babylon] appointed a prince who should
guide them aright, the wish of the heart whom his hand
upholds, even Cyrus the King of Ansan. 1 He has proclaimed
his title ; for the sovereignty of all the world does he com-
memorate his name.
The county of Quti 2 . , . he has subjected to his feet;
the men of the black heads [Babylonians] he has caused
his hand to conquer. In justice and righteousness has he
governed them.
Marduk the great lord, the restorer of his people, beheld
with joy the deeds of his vicegerent, who was righteous in
hand and heart. To his city of Babylon he summoned
him to march. . . . Like a friend and a comrade he went
at his side. The weapons of his vast army, whose number,
like the waters of a river, could not be known, were mar-
shaled in order and spread itself at his side.
Without fighting and battle Marduk caused him to enter
into Babylon. His city of Babylon he spared. EFabonidus
the king, who had sought a hiding place, who had revered
not Marduk, the god gave into Cyrus's hand.
The men of Babylon all of them, and the whole of Sumer
and Accad, the nobles and the high priest bowed themselves
before him. They kissed his feet, they rejoiced at his
sovereignty. Their faces shone.
The Lord Marduk, who benefits all men in peril and fear
has made strong his name.
[Cyrus goes on to boast of his successes, saying,] all the
kings who inhabit the high places of all regions from the
* Ansan was one of Cyrus's original kingdoms. * Modern Kurdistan.
538 B.C.] A JEWISH VIEW OP CYRUS 47
Upper Sea to the Lower Sea, 1 the inhabitants of the inlands,
the kings of Syria and the inhabitants of tents, all of them
brought their rich tribute, and in Babylon kissed my feet.
26. A JEWISH UTTERANCE CONCERNING CYRUS
The Bible, Book of Isaiah, chap. XLV, 1-4, chap. XLVI, 1-2
To the monotheistic Jews exiled in Babylon the conquest by
Cyrus must have seemed a deliverance. There was much in com-
mon between the worshipper of the righteous Jehovah and the
worshipper of the righteous Ahura-Mazda. Very possibly Hebrews
within the gates had assisted Cyrus's entrance. His victory was
hailed as a triumph wrought by the aid of Jehovah over the op-
pressive idolaters of Babylon : and certain it is that under the
Persian rule Jerusalem was rebuilt and the Jews enjoyed not a
little favor from the government.
Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed, to Cyrus whose right
hand I have holden, to subdue peoples before him :
I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-
leaved gates [of Babylon] and the gates shall not be shut
[against him].
I will go before thee [0 Cyrus], and I will make straight
the crooked places.
I will break in pieces the gates of brass.
I will cut in sunder the bars of iron.
And I will give thee the treasures of darkness : and the
hidden hordes of riches: that thou mayest know that I
Jehovah who called thee by thy name, am the God of
Israel.
For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have
even called thee by thy name : I have surnamed thee, though
thou hast not known me.
[Then somewhat later the prophet glories over the triumph of
monotheistic Persians over the gods of Babylon.]
1 From Lake Van in Armenia to the Persian Golf.
48 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
Bel boweth down,
Nabu stoopeth also.
Their idols were upon the beasts and the cattle.
Your carriages [men of Babylon] were a heavy burden :
yea, a heavy burden to the weary beast : [but now]
They stoop, they bow down together.
They could not deliver the burden, but themselves are
gone into captivity.
27. THE GREAT INSCRIPTION OF DARIUS AT BEHISTUN
Rawlinson's Translation, in the Rawlinson "Herodotus," Ed. 1862,
vol. H,p. 490
Behistun is on the western frontier of ancient Media, on the
road from Babylon to Ecbatana, a great thoroughfare in the days of
Persian supremacy. The writing is engraved on the face of a cliff
that rises 1700 feet high, and the inscription itself is 300 feet
from the base of the rock, and can only be reached with difficulty
and peril. It is in three languages, Persian, Babylonian, and Susian.
The translation is abridged from that of Colonel Eawlinson a
distinguished English explorer who fixes the date at 516 B.C.
In many ways this is among the most important and interesting
inscriptions preserved from antiquity. It both confirms many of
the stories of Herodotus, and also corrects him as to certain details.
While no doubt the "royal scribes " are responsible for its peculiar
literary form, it is very likely we are given what the mighty Darius
(reigned 521 to 485 B.C.) himself wished to have pass as the true
record of his deeds and greatness. A tone of genuine piety runs
through the inscription, and one gets a clear idea, conveyed
with less than the usual Oriental boasting, of how great were the
perils Darius had to overcome with his stout heart and military
genius. Darius is justly regarded as the second founder of the
Persian monarchy. Thanks to his energy and the brave loyalty of
his native Persians, the Pseudo-Bardiya was deposed, a vast number
of rebels crushed, and the Persian Empire put on so firm a basis
that it lasted down to the time of Alexander. Darius was an infin-
itely more admirable ruler than such Assyrians as Sennacherib.
516 B.C.] INSCRIPTION OF DARIUS 49
I am Darius the great king, the king of kings, the king of
the subject provinces, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson of
Arsames, the Achsemenian.
Says Darius the King . . . from antiquity our family
have been kings.
Says Darius the King, There are eight of my race who
have been kings before me, I am the ninth.
Says Darius the King, By the grace of Ahura-Mazda I am
king, Ahura-Mazda has granted me the empire.
Says Darius the King, These are the countries which have
come unto me, by the grace of Ahura-Mazda I have become
king over them ; Persia, Susiana, Babylonia, Assyria,
Arabia, Egypt, . . . Ionia, Media, Armenia, Cappadocia,
Parthia, Bactria, the Sacae * [and other lands J in all twenty-
three provinces.
Says Darius the King: Within those counties the man
who was good, him have I right well cherished. Whoever
was evil, him have I utterly rooted out. By the grace of
Ahuar-Mazda these are the countries by whom my laws have
been observed ; as it has been said to them by me so by them
it has been done.
Says Darius the King: This is what was done by me
after I became king. There was a man named Cambyses
the son of Cyrus who was king before me [529 to 522 B.C.].
Of that Cambyses there was a brother, Bardiya was
his name. . . . Presently Cambyses slew this Bardiya.
When he had slain Bardiya it was not known to the people
that Bardiya was slain; then Cambyses proceeded to [the
conquest of] Egypt. When Cambyses had gone thither to
Egypt the state became wicked. Then the Lie abounded in
the land, in Persia, in Media, and in the other provinces.
Says Darius the King : Next there arose a certain man, a
Magian, named Gaumata. . . . Thus he lied to the state, "I
am Bardiya, son of Cyrus and brother of Cambyses." Then
i A nomadic people of Central Asia, near sources of Oxus and Jaxartes.
50 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
the whole empire became rebellious ; from Cambyses it went
over to him, Persia, Media, and all the other provinces.
He seized the empire. . . , Afterward Cambyses, unable to
endure this, died.
Says Darius the King: The empire of which Gaumata
the Magian dispossessed Cambyses, that Empire from the
olden time had been long in our family. After Gaumata
had dispossessed Cambyses ... he did according to his
desire, he became king.
Says Darius the King: There was not a man, neither
Persian nor Median nor any of our family, who could dis-
possess that Gaumata of the crown. The state feared him
exceedingly. He slew many people who had known the old
Bardiya. and for this reason he slew them, " Lest they
should recognize that I am not Bardiya the son of Cyrus."
No one dared to say anything concerning Gaumata until I
arrived. Then I prayed unto Ahura-Mazda. He brought
me help. On the tenth day of the month Bagaydish, then it
was that with my faithful men I slew Gaumata and his chief
followers. At the fort Sictachotes in that district of Media
called Nissea there I slew him. I dispossessed him of the
empire. By the grace of Ahura-Mazda I became king. He
granted me the scepter.
Says Darius the King : The empire that had been taken
from our family that I recovered. I rooted it in its place.
. . . The temples which Gaumata had destroyed I restored.
The sacred offices of the state, both the religious chants and
the worship, I restored to the people who had been deprived
of them by Gaumata. I established the state in its place
both in Persia, Media, and in the provinces. . . .
Says Darius the King : When I had slain Gaumata the
Magian, then a man named Atrines arose ... to the state
of Susiana he said, " I am the king of Susiana." Then the
Susianians became rebellious, they went over to Atrines, he
became king over Susiana. And a man, a Babylonian
516 B.C.] INSCRIPTION OF DARIUS 51
Nidintabeius by name, he arose, to the state of Babylon
he falsely declared "I am Xabuchodrossor, the son of
Nabonidus " ; l afterward the whole state of Babylon became
rebellious. He seized the kingdom of Babylonia.
How Darius icon back the Rebellious Provinces
Says Darius the King: Then I went to Susa. That
Atrines was brought to me a prisoner. I slew him.
Says Darius the King : Then I went to Babylon against
that Nidintabelus. . . . His people held the Tigris. There
they were posted and they had boats. There I approached
a detachment on rafts. I brought the enemy into difficulty.
I carried their position. Ahura-Mazda brought me help.
By His grace I crossed the Tigris. There I slew many of
the troops of that Nidintabeius. On the twenty-sixth day
of the month Atriyata it was we fought the battle.
Says Darius the King: Then I went to Babylon. When I
was near to Babylon, at the city called Zazana, on the
Euphrates, there it was that Nidintabeius, who was called
Nabuchodrossor, came with his forces against me to do battle.
Then we fought a battle. Ahura-Mazda helped me; by His
grace I slew many of the troops of Nidintabeius. The
enemy was driven (?) into the water. The water destroyed
them.
Says Darius the King: Then Nidintabeius with the
horsemen that were faithful to him fled to Babylon. Then
I went to Babylon. By the grace of Ahura-Mazda 1 both
took Babylon, and seized that Nidintabeius.
Then I slew that Nidintabeius at Babylon.
Says Darius the King: while I was at Babylon these
are the countries that revolted against me, Persia, Media,
Assyria, Armenia, Parthia, Margiana, Sattagydia, Sacia.
[In Susiana also arose another usurper, one Martiya, but]
1 The last Babylonian king before the conquest by Cyrus.
52 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
Says Darius the King : While I was moving a little in
the direction of Susiana, then the Susianians, fearing me,
seized that Martiya. He who was their chief slew him.
Says Darius the King : A man named Phraortes, a Mede,
he rose up. To the state of Media he said, " I am Athrites
of the race of Cynaxares. " l Then the Median troops that
were with him revolted ; they went over to him ; he became
king over Media.
Says Darius the King : The army of Persians and Medes
that was with me remained faithful to me. Then I sent
forth troops ; Hydarnes, a Persian, I made their leader, and
thus I spake to them, " Go forth and smite the Median state
that does not acknowledge me." Then Hydarnes marched
with his army ; when he reached Media, at a city in Media
named Marus (?), he fought a battle with the Medes. The
leader of the Medes could not resist him, Ahura-Mazda
brought help to me, by His grace the troops of Hydarnes
utterly defeated that rebel army. . . . Then that army of
mine waited for me 2 . . . until I arrived in Media. . . .
[Other generals of Darius were in the meantime crushing the
formidable revolt in Armenia.]
Says Darius the King: Then I went out from Babylon,
I proceeded to Media. When I reached . . a city called
Kudrusia, there Phraortes, who was called " King of Media,"
came with a host to give me battle. Then we fought a bat-
tle. Ahura-Mazda aided me ; with His help I entirely de-
feated the army of Phraortes.
Says Darius the King: Then Phraortes . . . fled to a
part of Media called Rhages. There I sent an army, by
which he was taken and brought before me. I cut off his
nose, and his ears, and his tongue (?), and I led him away
1 And therefore of the old Median royal house, before the Persian
conquest.
2 This would hardly have happened if the rebel Medes had really been
" utterly defeated."
516 B.C.] INSCRIPTION OF DARIUS 53
captive. He was kept captive before my door; all the
kingdom beheld him. Then I crucified him at Ecbatana ;
and his chief followers I slew within the citadel of Ecbatana.
[In similar manner Darius tells how the rebels in Sagartia,
Parthia, Margiana, Bactria, etc., were crushed by him. There
was a second revolt in Babylonia, another false Bardiya arose in
Persia, but Darius subdued all his enemies. The inscription
continues :]
Says Darius the King: This is what I have done. By the
grace of Ahura-Mazda I have accomplished the whole.
After that [other rebel] kings arose against me. I fought
nineteen battles. By Ahura-Mazda's grace I smote them
and took nine kings prisoners. [Then follows a list of the
rebels and the provinces that followed them] . . .
Darius* s Instructions to his Successor
Says Darius the King : Thou that mayest be king after
me, keep thyself utterly from lies. 1 The man who may be
a liar, him destroy utterly. If thou shalt thus do, my coun-
try will remain in its integrity.
Says Darius the King : These are the deeds I have done.
By the grace of Ahura-Mazda have I executed the whole.
Thou who shalt read this tablet hereafter, let that which I
have done be a warning to thee, that thou lie not. . . .
Says Darius the King: Beware, my successor (?), lest
that which has been wrought by me, be not by thee con-
cealed. If thou conceal not this edict, but tell it to the
country, may Ahura-Mazda be a friend to thee, may thy
children be many, 2 and mayest thou live long.
Says Darius the King : This is the reason that Ahura-
Mazda and the other heavenly powers helped me, because
I was not wicked, nor was I a liar, nor was I tyrannical.
1 The cardinal sin, according to Zoroastrian ethics.
a A numerous posterity was among the highest goods in Persia.
54 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
... He who labored for my family, him I have cherished ;
he who has been hostile (?) to me, him have I utterly
destroyed.
Says Darius the King : Thou who mayest be king after-
ward, the man that is a liar and an evil-doer (?) befriend him
not. Destroy such with the edge of the sword.
[The remainder of the tablet, so far as it can still be read, in-
vokes blessings on whoever shall preserve the inscription, invokes
curses on any who may destroy it, gives a list of the six friends of
Darius who aided him to slay Gaumata, the usurper, and gives a
much mutilated account of still another revolt that Darius quelled
in Susiana.]
28. THE PERSIANS' DEVOTION TO THEIR KING
Herodotus, book VIII, chap. 118. Rawlinson, Translator
The Persians paid an implicit obedience to their king, even be-
yond the majority of Oriental peoples. To a certain extent this
devotion was a national advantage, leading to acts of marvelous
self-sacrifice for the common cause which the king represented.
At other times it ran into sheer absurdities and servility, as in the
case of a captain, who, when ordered by the sovereign to be bas-
tinadoed, "congratulated himself that the king had deigned to
notice his existence." The anecdote here cited from the reign of
Xerxes (485 to 465 B.C.) illustrates the attitude of the great Per-
sian nobles to a very exacting and incompetent master.
It is said that when Xerxes on his way from Athens [re-
treating from Greece after his unsuccessful invasion] : ar-
rived at Eion upon the Strymon, he gave up traveling by
land, and embarked himself on board a Phoenician ship, and
so crossed into Asia. On his voyage the ship was assailed
by a strong wind blowing from the mouth of the Strymon,
which caused the sea to run high. As the storm increased,
and the ship labored heavily, because of the number of the
Persians who had come in. the king's train, and who now
1000 B.C.] A SERMON OP ZOROASTER 55
crowded the deck, Xerxes was seized with fear, and called
out to the helmsman in a loud voice, asking him, if there
were any means whereby they might escape the danger.
"No means, master," the helmsman answered, unless we
could be quit of these too numerous passengers." Xerxes,
they say, on hearing this, addressed the Persians as follows :
" Men of Persia," he said, " now is the time for you to show
what love ye bear your king. My safety, as it seems, de-
pends wholly upon you." So spake the king; and the Per-
sians instantly made obeisance, and then leapt over into the sea.
Thus was the ship lightened, and Xerxes got safe to Asia.
As soon as he had reached the shore, he sent for the helms-
man, and gave him a golden crown because he had preserved
the life of the king, but because he had caused the death
of a number of Persians, he ordered his head to be struck
from his shoulders.
29. A SERMOX ATTRIBUTED TO ZOROASTER
Adapted from the Yasna (chap. XXX) of the Zend-Avesta,
Bartholomse, Translator
Certain investigators have argued that Zoroaster (more correctly
Zarathustra) never lived, that he and his ministry were part of a
network of myth. It seems very probable, however, that Zoroaster
was an historic personage, who sometime about 1000 B.C. passed
among the rude Aryan tribes on the uplands of mid-Asia, preaching
a stern high doctrine of righteousness, banishing the old Iranian
superstitions, and developing a religion far nobler than almost all
others in the East. Zoroaster seems to have taught a doctrine of
dualism that formed a satisfactory rough-and-ready solution to the
problem of sin and evil quite sufficient to meet the questionings
of an unenlightened age. Along with this went a firm insistence on
the necessity of personal truth and uprightness. The certainty of
ultimate reward for the righteous and punishment for the wicked
is emphasized in no hesitant terms. The discourse, here quoted,
attributed to Zoroaster, has been likened to the "Sermon on
the Mount," as giving the cardinal points of his notable gospel.
56 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
Now do I proclaim it : ye that draw nigh hear what
the wise should receive in their hearts even the songs ot
praise and the holy rites which men in piety pay unto
Ahura [the Lord] and the holy truths and precepts. Hidden
were they aforetime, now they appear in the light.
The two Spirits [there were], the Twain and skillfully
created. Good and Evil were they in the beginning and
thus in thought, in speech, in works. Betwixt these two
rightly have the wise made choice: but not so the
foolish.
When these two spirits had agreed to institute life and
death, and had decreed that finally the followers of the Lie
[the misbelievers] should receive misery, and the followers
of Truth should receive happiness, then of these Twain, the
lying one chose the Evil, while the holier one, he who
hath put on the firm heavens as a garment, he hath
elected the Eight, and with him all who desire to do right
in the sight of Ahura-Mazda. . .
The daevas [demons] also made not the right choice : for
whilst they debated folly mastered them therefore they
chose the Evil. In the house of violence they gathered to
destroy the life of human kind.
But when vengeance has requited their violence, then
Ahura-Mazda, surely the sovereign power will be given by thy
Good Mind to those who have aided the. Truth to win the
mastery over the Lie.
Therefore will we hold to those who do betimes lead this
life even to perfect righteousness.
For then destruction shall smite the liar, while those who
keep the good doctrine shall assemble unhindered in the
beautiful abode [of the holy ones.]
If then, men, ye lay in heart the laws established by
Mazda, the good and the evil, the long torments for the
lovers of falsehood, the bliss awaiting the true believers
well shall it be with you.
600 B.C.] THE JUDGMENT OF THE SOUL 57
30. THE ZOKOASTRIAX STORY OP THE CHIXTAT BRIDGE
THE JUDGMENT OF THE SOUL
Adapted from Yast XXII (Darmesteter, Translator) " Sacred Books of the
/' vol. IH, part II, p. 315 ff.
In the portion of the Zeud-A vesta culled the Yasts occur some
of the most exalted passages of the Zoroastrian scriptures. The
tone is often noble, poetic, and far above the spiritual level of the
average of the "Sacred Books" of the Orient. Probably most
Westerners will assent to the suggestion that the best parts of the
Zend-Avesta come closer to the high standard set by the Hebrew
Scriptures, than any other Oriental writing. The passage here
given gives a highly poetic picture of the reception of the Blessed
into Paradise.
At the head of the Chinvat Bridge, betwixt this world
and the next, when the soul goes over it, there comes a fair,
white-armed and beautiful figure, like a maid in her fifteenth
year, as fair as the fairest things in the world. And the
soul of the true believer speaks to her, "What maid art
thou, all surpassing in thy beauty?" And she makes
answer, " youth of good thought, good works, and good
deeds, of good religion : I am thine own conscience."
Then pass the souls of the righteous to the golden seat
of Ahura-Mazda, of the Archangels, to Garo-nmano, " The
Abode of Song."
[Next as the antithesis, the Zend-Avesta tells how the souls of
the wicked are met by a foul hag and are plunged into endless tor-
ment.]
The Zoroastrian Belief in the Deified Dead
We worship the Eravashis [deified spirits] of the holy
men of the lands of the Aryans : ... of the women of the
lands of the Aryans : yea of the holy men and holy women
of all the lands.
58 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
We worship the goodly, powerful, kindly Fravashis of
the most rejoicing Fire. . . . We sacrifice unto the Fra-
vashis of those that have been: of those that will be : to all
the Fravashis of all nations, and especially to those of the
friendly nations !
The Zoroastrian Hymn to the star Tishtrya (Sinus)
We sacrifice to Tishtrya, the bright star and glorious, who
moves in light with the stars that have in them the seed of
the waters: whom Ahura-Mazda has established as a lord
and overseer above all stars. . . .
We sacrifice unto Tishtrya, the bright star, and glorious,
for whom desire the standing waters and the running spring-
waters, the stream waters and the rain waters: [that he
cause the clouds to send down rain]. . . ,
We sacrifice unto Tishtrya, the bright star and glorious :
whose rising is watched by men who live on the crops of
the field: by the wise chieftains: by wild beasts on the
hills, by tame beasts running on the plain lands ; as he opines
up to the country, they watch him, [to see] whether the
presage of the year be foul or favorable : each man think-
ing within his heart, " How shall the Aryan countries be
fertile ? "
31. CUSTOMS OF THE PERSIANS
Herodotus, book 1, 131-139. Rawlinson, Translator
Herodotus, the famous Greek historian, in his travels as far as
Babylon, about 450 B.C., had ample opportunity to see the
Persians and their customs. If in points he reports inaccurately,
the main details are probably correct.
The customs which I know the Persians to observe are
the following. They have no images of the gods, no temples
nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly.
This comes, I think, from their not believing the gods to
450 B.C.] CUSTOMS OP THE PERSIANS 59
have the same nature with men, as the Greeks imagine.
Their wont, however, is to ascend to the summits of the lofti-
est mountains and there to offer sacrifice to Zeus [ = Ahura-
Mazda], which is the name they give to the whole circuit of
the firmament.
To these gods the Persians offer sacrifice in the following
manner : they raise no altar, light no fire, pour no libations ;
there is no sound of the flute, no putting on of chaplets, no
consecrated barley cake ; but the man who wishes to sacri-
fice brings his victim to a spot of ground which is free from
pollution, and then calls upon the name of the god to whom
he intends to offer. It is usual to have the turban encircled
with a wreath, most commonly of myrtle. The sacrificer is
not allowed to pray for blessings on himself alone, but he
prays for the welfare of the king and of the whole Persian
people, among whom he is of necessity included. He cuts
the victim in pieces, and having boiled the flesh, he lays it
out upon the tenderest herbage he can find, trefoil especially.
When all is ready, one of the Magi comes forward and chants
a hymn, which they say recounts the origin of the gods. It
is not lawful to offer a sacrifice unless there is a Magus
present. After waiting a short time the sacrificer" carries
the flesh of the victim away with him, and makes whatever
use of it he may please.
It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs
of weight when they are drunk ; and then on the morrow,
when they are sober, the decision to which they came the
night before is put before them by the master of the house
in which it was made ; and if it is then approved of, they
act upon it ; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes, however,
they are sober at their first deliberation, but in this case
they always reconsider the matter under the influence of
wine.
When they meet each other in the street, you may know
if the persons meeting are of equal rank by the following
60 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
token : if they are, instead of speaking, they kiss each other
on the lips. In the case where one is a little inferior to the
other, the kiss is given on the cheek ; where the difference
of rank is great, the inferior prostrates himself upon the
ground. Of nations, they honor most their nearest neigh-
bors, whom they esteem next to themselves ; those who live
beyond these they honor in the second degree ; and so with
the remainder, the farther they are removed, the less the
esteem in which they hold them. The reason is, that they
look upon themselves as very greatly superior in all respects
to the rest of mankind, regarding others as approaching in
excellence in proportion as they dwell nearer to them ; whence
it comes to pass that those who are the farthest off must be
the most degraded of mankind.
There is no nation which so readily adopts foreign cus-
toms as the Persians. 1 Thus, they have taken the dress of
the Medes, considering it superior to their own ; and in war
they wear the Egyptian breastplate. As soon as they hear
of any luxury, they instantly make it their own. Each of
them has several wives, and a still larger number of con-
cubines.
Next to prowess in arms, it is regarded as the greatest
proof of manly excellence, to be the father of many sons.
Every year the king sends rich gifts to the man who can
show the largest number; for they hold that number is
strength. Their sons are carefully instructed from their
fifth to their twentieth year, in three things alone, to ride,
to draw the bow, and to speak the truth. Until their fifth
year they are not allowed to come into the sight of their
father, but pass their lives with the women. This is done
that, if the child die young, the father may not be afflicted
by its loss.
To my mind it is a wise rule, as also is the following
i This was the greatest weakness of the Persians, and the chief cause of
their decline.
450 B.C.] CUSTOMS OF THE PERSIANS 61
that the king shall not put any one to death for a single
fault, and that none of the Persians shall visit a single fault
in a slave with any extreme penalty ; hut in every case the
services of the offender shall be set against his misdoings ;
and if the latter be found to outweigh the former, the
aggrieved party shall then proceed to punishment
They hold it unlawful to talk of anything which it is un-
lawful to do. The most disgraceful thing in the world, they
think, is to tell a lie, the next worse to owe a debt, because
among other reasons, the debtor is obliged to tell lies.
CHAPTER IV
EARLIEST GREECE
Of the actual annals of the earliest dwellers in Hellas we know
very little ; of their civilization we know a great deal. This is
owing mainly to the archaeological remains discovered in the last
generation at Mycenae, Tiryns, Troy, etc., and still more recently
in Crete ; and even more to our priceless heritage in the Homeric
poems. Host scholars are no longer willing to consider the
" Siege of Troy " as a mere creation of the imagination, however
much the true story of the fall of the royal city by the Hellespont
may be overshadowed in the tales of the minstrels ; still less are
they now prone to treat the descriptions of life in the Homeric
poems as untypical of their day and age. It is probable enough
that the ancient remains we find in Crete and on the Greek main-
land are considerably older than the oldest parts of the " Iliad," l
nevertheless the transitions in this earlier civilization were prob-
ably made somewhat gradually ; and the " World of Homer " was
a world that had kept certain common characteristics for many
centuries. Besides a quotation from a modern writer as to the
habits of the ancient Cretans, there are here presented a number
of excerpts from the " Iliad" and "Odyssey" that illustrate thelife of
the epic period, also a quotation from the still later poet Hesiod,
who gives a picture of farming and trading conditions just as the
Greek world was emerging into the clear light of history.
32. THE EARLY CRETANS
C. H. and H B. Hawes, " Crete the Forerunner of Greece,' 1 p 26 ff.
Very recently archaeologists have discovered in Crete the
remains of a magnificent civilization that reached its highest
1 Which in turn is considerably older than the " Odyssey."
1500 B.C.] THE EARLY CRETANS 6S
prosperity about 1500 B. c. and which had declined greatly b)
the time of the so-called "Homeric Age" in Greece. It is nol
likely that these Cretans were of the same race as the Greeks,
who are now looked upon as intruders probably into the JEJgeac
basin from the north; but it is likely that bold sailors oi
Cnossos and the other Cretan cities gave the Homeric "Aehae-
ans " many or most of their ideas of civilization. About 1450
B.C. Cnossos was destroyed by invaders, arid the island never
recovered its old prosperity.
Pictures of the early Cretans have survived on the walls
of Egyptian tombs and Cretan palaces, and we have small
likenesses of them in bronze figurines, gem intaglios, and
steatite reliefs. Making due allowance for artistic con-
ventions, we may come to some fairly reliable conclusions.
The men were bronzed as are the men of Crete today, with
beardless faces and dark hair, which they wore coiled in
three twists on their head, and falling in three long curls
over their shoulders. The women's complexions were,
no doubt, fairer ; artists politely represented them as white,
while they used a copper hue for the men. Heads were
small, features were rather sharp . . . and the women who
dance and converse on the Cnossian walls have a self-
assurance and sparkle that modern belles might envy. . . .
Women's dress became more and more elaborate [during
the ages of Cretan civilization] until it reached an astonish-
ingly modern standard in the fifteenth century B.C. Care-
ful cutting and fitting, fine sewing, and exquisite embroidery
were called into play. We learn the result from the fres-
coes and figurines : we find the lost needles and bodkins
buried in Cretan houses. . . . Fashion favored bell-
shaped skirts, the style of which is varied by flounces
and bands, while often the skirt is flounced from top to
bottom with ruffles of varying widths and colors. . . .
[Speaking of the dress of a " Snake Goddess," Lady Evans
says :] " The whole costume seems to consist of garments
64 EARLIEST GREECE
carefully sewn, and fitted to the shape without any flowing
draperies. . . . The lines adopted are those considered
ideal by the modern corset maker rather than those of the
sculptor. . . ."
[Men dressed much more simply, but sometimes wore feathered
headdresses and turbans. Both sexes wore necklaces, and arm-
lets, also beads of semiprecious stones, rock crystal, and blue
paste or Kyanos.]
Cretan Architecture
[At the time of their highest prosperity the Cretans built their
houses in a style more modem than classical]
Houses built on a slope had basement doors connecting
with a back door on the downhill side, while the entrance
to the main floor was by a doorway flush with the street.
Crossing the main entrance one found himself in a paved
antechamber with several doors leading to the ground floor
rooms. . . . Strong timbers were needed for the support
of the second stories, for even upper floors were sometimes
of stone, as in many modem Italian houses. Windows are
represented in the faience copies of houses found at Cnossos,
and are painted red, as if to indicate the use of an oiled
and scarlet-tinted parchment where we to-day use glass.
[Vastly more elaborate than these houses of the commonality
were the great palaces.]
The palace of Cnossos was a town in itself! It stood
four stories high on the east side, and had a floor space of
not less than four acres. ... It is a veritable maze of
chambers, magazines, and courts disposed in well-defined
groups of apartments, on certain broad lines of symmetry,
but in a rambling style wholly opposed to the classic.
Finely squared limestone, handsome blocks of gypsum,
columns of cypress, brilliant wall paintings contributed to
the splendid appearance. The palace possessed .two great
1000 B.C.] THE HOMERIC ASSEMBLY 65
courts, a theatrical area, audience chambers, bathrooms, and
a drainage system not equaled in Europe between that day
and the nineteenth century. Suitably secluded within this
labyrinthian structure we find domestic apartments planned
to please men and women of fastidious habits, exacting in
their demand for ease and magnificence,
[There are stone benches and platforms still preserved in the
rooms, and besides these no doubt there were stools, chairs, rugs,
etc., and traces survive of the panels of a splendid wooden chest
inlaid with faience mosaic. Magnificent three and four-wicked
lamps were used.]
The richest decorations of Cretan rooms consisted in
elaborate mural paintings between formal borders. . . . We
can imagine the picturesque scenes in the halls of the
palaces when the larger lamps were alight . . . sending a
fitful glare through the columned chambers and lighting
up the gayly colored costumes of lords and ladies listening
to sea tales or the adventures of the bull chase.
(In addition to this magnificence, there is ample evidence of
developed industries, beautiful pottery and metal manufactures ;
a great sea traffic especially to Egypt ; and many remains of a
written language, at present undecipherable.)
\ 33. THE HOMERIC ASSEMBLY
Abridged from " The mad," book H, 11. 50 fi\, fcang, Leaf, and Myers'
Translation
What the Homeric Agora (Public Assembly) was, as well as the
method of convening it, the conduct of business by the leading
" King " and his fellow nobles, etc., is well set forth in this passage
from the "Iliad," telling how Agamemnon assembled the Greeks to
arrange a general assault upon the Trojans. For the sake of
brevity the various speeches, often very interesting, are condensed,
but the descriptive matter, important for historical purposes, is
left intact.
66 EARLIEST GREECE
Now went the goddess Dawn to high Olympus foretelling
daylight to Zeus and all the immortals : and the king
[Agamemnon] bade the clear-voiced heralds summon to the
assembly the flowing-haired Achaeans. So did those sum-
mon, and these gathered with speed.
But first the council of the great-hearted elders met be-
side the ship of King Nestor the Pylos-born, and he that
had assembled them [Agamemnon] then framed his cunning
council : [declaring that he had had a dream presaging victory,
therefore he urged the Achaeans to haste to arms.] " But
first (said he) I will speak to make trial of them as is fitting,
and will bid them flee with their benched ships, only do ye
from this side and from that speak to hold them back."
So spake he and sate him down: and there stood up among
them Nestor, who was king of sandy Pylos. He of good in-
tent made harangue, and said that [inasmuch as Agamem-
non had beheld this dream, they should summon the
Achaeans to battle].
Tlie Convening of the Assembly
So spake he, and led the way from the council, and all
the other sceptered chiefs rose with him and obeyed the
shepherd of the host : and the people hastened to them.
Even as when the tribes of thronging bees issue from some
hollow rock, ever in fresh procession, and fly clustering
among the flowers of spring, and some on this hand and
some on that fly thick, even so from ships and huts before
the low beach, marched forth their many tribes by companies
to the place of assembly. . . . And the place of assemblage
was in an uproar, and the earth echoed again as the hosts
sate them down, and there was turmoil. Nine heralds re-
strained them with shouting, if perchance they might
refrain from clamor, and hearken to their kings the fos-
terlings of Zeus. And hardly at last would the people sit,
1000 B.C.] THE HOMERIC ASSEMBLY 67
and keep them to their benches and cease from noise. Then
stood up Lord Agamemnon bearing his scepter that He-
phaestos had wrought curiously. . . . Thereon he leaned and
spake his saying to the Argives. . . . FHe bemoaned the ill
fate of the war, the nine years of fighting and no victory :
now since all was Tain, bitter as disappointment was], "let
us flee with our ships to our dear native land: for now shall
we never take wide- waved Troy."
So spake he, and stirred the spirit in the breasts of all
throughout the multitude as many as had not heard the coun-
cil [of the chiefs]. And the assembly swayed like high sea-
waves of the Icarian !Main l that east wind and south wind
raise, rushing upon them from the clouds of Father Zeus.
And even as when the west wind cometh to stir a deep corn-
field with violent blast, and the ears bow down, so was all
the assembly stirred, and they with shouting hasted towards
the ships; and the dust from beneath their feet rose and
stood on high. And they bade each man his neighbor to
seize the ships and drag them into the bright salt sea, and
cleared out the launching ways : and the noise went up to
heaven of their hurrying homeward ; and they began to take
the props from beneath the ships.
[Then the Argives would verily have abandoned Troy, had not
Athene stirred up Odysseus to go out and persuade the folk to
tarry a little.]
How Odysseus restored Order
He set him to a run and cast away his mantle which his
herald gathered up, even Eurybates of Ithaca that waited
on him. And himself he went to meet Agamemnon son of
Atreus, and at his frand received the scepter of his sires,
imperishable forever, wherewith he took his way amid the
ships of the mail-clad Achaeans.
i The Mid-^Egean near the island of Icaria.
68 EARLIEST GREECE
Whenever he found one that was a captain and man of
mark he stood by his side and restrained him with gentle
words : '' Good sir, it is not seemly to affright thee like a
coward, but do thou sit thyself and make thy folk sit down.
[Agamemnon is only putting us to trial. . . .] "
But whatever man of the people he saw and found him
shouting, him he drave with his scepter and chode him with
loud words : " Good sir, sit still and hearken to the words
of others who are thy betters. ... In no wise can we Achae-
ans all be kings here. A multitude of masters is no good
thing. Let there be one master, one king, to ivhom the son of
crooked-counselling Cronos hath granted it." l
So masterfully ranged he the host : and they hasted back
to the assembly from ships and huts, with noise as when a
wave of the loud-sounding sea roareth on the long beach and
the main resoundeth.
Ther sites the Demagogue
Kow all the rest sat down, and kept their place upon the
benches, only Thersites 2 still chattered on, the uncontrolled
of speech, whose mind was full of words many and disorderly,
wherewith to strive against the chiefs idly and in no good
order, but even as he deemed he should make the Argives
laugh. And he was ill-favored beyond all men that came
to Ilios. Bandy-legged was he, and lame of one foot, and
his two shoulders rounded, arched down upon his chest ; and
over them his head was warped, and a scanty stubble sprouted
out of it.
Now with shrill shout he poured forth his upbraidings
upon goodly Agamemnon. With him the Achseans were sore
1 A saying often quoted later in Greece in defense of the claims of mon-
archy.
2 In bringing in the interruption of Thersites and his discomfiture, the
Homeric bard is introducing an incident very likely to appeal to the audi-
ence in the princely halls where he would .be reciting.
1000 B.C.] THE HOMERIC ASSEMBLY 69
vexed and had indignation in their souls. But he with loud
shout spoke and reviled Agamemnon . . . [calling the
Achseans shameful fools and women for serving him longer
in this purposeless, disastrous war, waged for his own
selfish ends].
So spake Thersites, reviling Agamemnon shepherd of the
host: but goodly Odysseus came straight at his side, and
looking sternly at him with hard words rebuked him . . .
[then] with his staff he smote his back and shoulders. And
he bowed down and a big tear fell from him, and a bloody
weal stood up from his back beneath the golden scepter.
Then he sat down and was amazed, and in pain with a help-
less look wiped away the tear . . . [while the others made
mock at him].
How the Chief addressed the People
Then up rose Odysseus waster of cities with the scepter
in his hand. And by his side bright-eyed Athene in the
likeness of a herald bade the multitude keep silence, that
the sons of the Achseans, both the nearest and the farthest,
might hear his words and giveheed to his counsel. . . . [And
set forth to them that though the siege had been weary,
mighty omens as interpreted by the seers made it plain
that now in the tenth year of the siege, Troy must perish :
therefore let them abide for the battle.]
So spake he, and the Argives shouted aloud, and all
around the ships echoed terribly to the voice of the Achseans
as they praised the saying of godlike Odysseus. And then
[Nestor spoke urging all to battle, and counseling Aga-
memnon to separate the captains and men into their tribes and
companies]. " So wilt thou know whether it is by divine
command that thou shalt not take the city, or by the
baseness of thy warriors, and their ill skill in battle/'
[To him Agamemnon answered assenting and then com
70 EARLIEST GREECE
manded the Achaeans :] " Go ye now to your meal that we
may join the battle. Let each man sharpen well his spear
and bestow well his shield, and let him give his fleet-footed
steeds their meal, and look well to his chariot on every side,
and take thought for battle, that all day long we may con-
fcend in hateful war. ... On each man's breast shall the
baldric of his covering shield be wet with sweat, and his
hand shall grow faint about the spear, and each man's horse
shall sweat as he draweth the polished chariot. And whom-
soever I perceive minded to tarry far from the fight beside
the beaked ships, for him shall there be no hope to escape
the dogs and birds of prey."
Agamemnon offers Public Prayer
So spake he, and the Argives shouted aloud, like a wave,
when the south wind corneth and stirreth it. ... And they
stood up and scattered in haste throughout the ships, and
took their meal. And they did sacrifice each man to the
everlasting gods, praying for escape from death and the
tumult of battle. But Agamemnon, king of men, slew a fat
bull of five years to most mighty Cronion [Zeus], and called
the elders [to join in the sacrifice], . . . They stood around
the bull and took the barley meal. And Agamemnon made
his prayer in their midst, and said :
" Zeus, most glorious, most great, god of the storm cloud,
that dwellest in the heaven, vouchsafe that the sun shall
not set on us, nor the darkness come near till I have laid
low upon the earth Priam's palace smirched with smoke, and
burnt the doorways thereof with consuming fire : and rent
from Hector's breast his doublet cleft with the blade; while
about him full many of his comrades prone in the dust do
bite the earth." '
Now when they had prayed and sprinkled the barley
i Note the absolutely Pagan sentiments of this prayer.
1000 B.C.] THE EPISODE OP DOLON^ 71
meal they first drew back the bull's head, and cut his throat
and flayed him, and cut slices from the thighs and wrapped
them in fat, making a double fold, and laid raw collops
thereon. And these they burnt on cleft wood stripped of
leaves, and spitted the vitals and laid them over Hephaestos's
flame. . . . [They roasted the flesh, and feasted thereon:
then Nestor counseled that the folk be ordered to the fight,
and] straightway Agamemnon bade the clear-voiced heralds
summon to battle the flowing-haired Achseans.
34. THE EPISODE OF DOLOX : A TYPICAL HOMERIC EPISODE
" The Iliad," book X, 11. 315 ff ., Lang, Leaf, and Myers' Translation
The episode of Dolon is very typical of the whole style of
Homeric warfare. It is substantially complete in itself, and illus-
trates alike the method of fighting by personal duel and ambush,
and the premium that the Greek genius put upon successful guile.
Odysseus only increased the esteem in which his comrades held
him by giving Dolon an implied promise of his life if he would
betray the positions of the Trojans, and then allowing Diomedes
to slaughter the prisoner in cold blood.
Now there was among the Trojans one Dolon, the son of
Eumedes, the godlike herald, and he was rich in gold and
rich in bronze, and verily he was ill-favored to look upon
but swift of foot; now he was an only son among five
sisters. So spake he then a word to the Trojans and to
Hector : [promising that he would go and spy out all the
schemings of the Achseans, if he were promised the horses
and chariot of Achilles].
And Hector took the staff in his hand and swore to him :
" Now let Zeus himself be witness, and the loud-thundering
lord of Hera, that no other man of Troy shall mount those
horses, but thou, I declare, shalt rejoice in them forever."
So spake he and swore a bootless oath thereto, and aroused
Dolon to go. And straightway he cast on his shoulders his
72 a EARLIEST GREECE
crooked bow, and did on thereover the skin of a gray wolf,
and on his head a helm of ferret skin, and took a sharp
javelin, and went on his way to the ships from the host.
But he was not like to come back from the ships and bring
word to Hector.
Now when he had left the throng of men and horses, he
went forth eagerly on the way, and Odysseus . . . was ware
of him as he approached, and said unto Dioinedes [that
here was a spy, whom they would follow stealthily and
capture]. . . .
So turning out of the path they lay down among the
bodies of the dead: and swiftly Dolon ran past them in
his witlessness. But when he was as far off as the length of
a furrow made by mules for they are better by far than
kine, to drag the jointed plow through the deep fallow
the twain ran after him, and he stood still when he heard
the sound, supposing in his heart they were friends coine
from the Trojans to turn him back at the countermand of
Hector. But when they were about a spear cast off, or even
less, he knew them for foemen, and stirred his swift limbs
to fly, and speedily they started in pursuit
And as when two sharp-toothed hounds well skilled in
the chase press ever hard on a doe or a hare through a
wooded land, and it runs screaming before them, even so
Tydeus's son [Diomedes] and Odysseus, the sacker of cities,
cut Dolon off from the host and ever pursued after him. . . .
[Then Diomedes cast his spear], but of his own will he
missed the man, and passing over his right shoulder the
point of the polished spear stuck fast in the ground, and
Dolon stood in great dread and trembling, and the teeth
chattered in his mouth, and he was green with fear. Then
the twain came to him panting and gripped his hands, and
weeping he spake, "Take me alive, and I will ransom
myself, for within our house is bronze and gold and
smithied iron. . . ." <
1000 B.C.] THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES 73
[Then Odysseus guilefully told him not to think of death,"
but to confess why he had come, and Do! on weeping con-
fessed his purpose, and revealed to the questioners how all
the host of the Trojans lay encamped: but when he was
finished] strong Diomedes, looking grimly on him, said,
" Put no thought of escape, Dolon, in thine heart for all the
good tidings thou hast brought, once you have come into
our hands. For if now we release you or let you go, on
some later day you will come to the swift ships of the
Achaeans, either to play the spy or fight in open war, but if
subdued beneath my hands you lose your life, never again
will you prove a bane to the Argives."
He spake, and that other with strong hand was about to
touch his chin, and implore his mercy, but Diomedes smote
him in the midst of the neck, rushing on him with the
sword, and cut through both sinews, and the head of him
still speaking was mingled in the dust. And they stripped
him of the casque . . . and of his wolfskin, and his bended
bow, and his long spear: and these to Athens the Giver
of Spoil did noble Odysseus hold aloft in his hand, and he
prayed, saying, " Rejoice, Goddess, in these, for to thee
first of all the Immortals in Olympus will we call for aid ;
nay, but yet again send us on against the horses and the
sleeping places of the men of Thrace ! "
35. THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES
" The Diad," book XVHi, 11. 479-610 passim. Adapted from Lang, Leaf,
and Myers' Translation
The following passage from the " Iliad " is famous beyond most
portions of the great poem for its informational value. It would
have indeed taken a god to have wrought all the scenes mentioned
herein, upon any battle shield ; but as a succession of pictures of
what the bard conceived to be typical situations in the society of
his age this description is unsurpassed. It is as if a series of bril-
74 EARLIEST GREECE
liant photographs of the life of three thousand years ago were sub-
mitted to us for patient, careful study. The passage itself calls
for little preliminary comment. The shield is of course assumed
to be made in the workshop of Hephsestos the Fire God, whither
Thetis, mother of Achilles, has resorted, seeking a new suit of armor
for her redoubtable son.
And first Hephaestos fashioned a shield great and strong,
adorning it all over, and set thereto a shining rim, triple,
bright-glancing, and therefrom a silver baldric.
There wrought he the earth, and the heavens and the
sea, and the unwearying sun, and the moon waxing to the
full, and the signs every one wherewith the heavens are
crowned, Pleiads and Hyads and Orion's might, and the
Bear which men call also the Wain, her that turneth in
her place and watcheth Orion, and alone hath no part in
the baths of Ocean. 1
The City at Peace
Therein too he fashioned two fair cities. In the one
were espousals and marriage feasts : and beneath the torch-
light they were leading the brides from their chambers
through the city, while the bridal song rose loud. And
young men were whirling in the dance, and among them flutes
and viols sounded high: and women standing each at her
door were admiring. But the [older] folk were gathered at
the assembly place : for a strife was arisen, two men con-
tending about the blood ransom of a man slain. The one
avowed he had paid all, but the other denied he had re-
ceived anything, and each trusted to his witness to prove
his cause. And the people were cheering on both as they
took either side. And heralds kept order among the folk,
while the elders were sitting on polished stones in the
sacred circle, and holding in their hands staves given them
* This enumeration gives a very fair idea of the extent of Homeric
astronomy.
1000 B.C.] THE SHIELD OP ACHILLES 75
by the loud-voiced heralds. 1 Then before the folk they
rose and gave each man in turn his judgment. And in the
midst lay two talents of gold, to fall to him who should
plead among them most righteously.
TJie City at War
But round about the other city were two armies in siege
with glittering arms. Their counsels were divided, either to
sack the town, or to share all with the townsfolk [in way of
ransom] whatsoever wealth the fair city held. But the be-
sieged were not yielding, but were arming for an ambush :
while on their walls to guard stood their dear wives and
children, and with these the old men. [So they laid their
ambush at the river, whither were driven the besiegers'
cattle trains.] But the besiegers, as they sat [at council]
before the pulpits [whence the orators spoke] heard much
din among the oxen. Forthwith they mounted [their
chariots] behind their high-stepping horses, and came up
with speed. Then they arrayed their battle and fought
beside the river banks, and smote one another with bronze-
shod spears.
The Farmstead Scenes
Likewise he set in the shield a soft fresh-plowed field,
rich tilth and wide, the third time plowed: and many
plowers therein drove their yokes to and fro as they
wheeled about. Whensoever they came to the boundary of
the field and turned, then would a man come to each and
give into his hands a goblet of sweet wine, while others
would be turning back along the furrows, anxious to reach
the boundary of the deep tilth. And the field grew black
behind them.
Furthermore he set therein a domain land deep in corn,
1 They were given staves seemingly as a kind of token that they were
entitled to sit in the council.
76 EARLIEST GREECE
where hinds were reaping with sharp sickles. Some arm-
fuls were falling in rows to the earth along the swath,
while others the sheaf-binders were binding in twisted
bands of straw. Three sheaf-binders stood over them,
while behind boys gathering corn and bearing it in their
arms gave it constantly to the binders; and among them
the lord was standing silently at the swath leaning on his
staff and rejoicing in his heart. And henchmen apart be-
neath an oak were preparing a feast, with a great ox they
had sacrificed : while the women were strewing much barley
to make the workers' supper.
Tlie Vintage Scene
Also he set therein a vineyard teeming plenteously with
clusters: and one single pathway led to it, whereby the
vintagers might go when they should gather the vintage.
Here maidens and striplings in childish glee bare the sweet
fruit in plaited baskets. And in the midst of them a boy
made pleasant music on a clear-toned viol, and sang thereto
a sweet Linos-song 1 with delicate voice; while the rest with
feet falling together kept time with music and with song.
Also the glorious lame god wrought therein a pasture in
a fair glen, a great pasture of white sheep, and a stable and
roofed huts and folds.
The Scene from Crete
Also did he devise a dancing place like unto the one which
once, in wide Cnossos, Daedalus wrought for Ariadne of the
lovely tresses. There were youths dancing and maidens of
costly wooing, their hands on one another's wrists. Fine
linen the maidens had on, and the youths well-woven doub-
lets faintly glistening with oil. Fair wreaths had the
maidens, and the youths daggers of gold hanging from silver
1 Probably a lament for the dying summer.
900A.D.] THE PALACE OF MENELAUS 77
baldrics. And now they would run around with deft feet
exceeding lightly, as when a potter sitting by his wheel
maketh trial of it whether it run : and now anon they would
run in lines to meet one another. And a great company
stood around the lovely dance in joy ; and among them a
divine minstrel was making music on his lyre, and through
the midst of them, as he began his strain, two tumblers
whirled.
36. ODYSSEUS'S OPINION AS TO MARRIED HAPPINESS
" The Odyssey," book VI, 11. 180-185, Butcher and Lang's Translation
How, despite the barbarities of its warfare and manifold other
evidences that civilization in the Homeric age was very young, a
beautiful family life was possible, is well illustrated by the follow-
ing fair wish addressed by Odysseus to his preserver, the high-
minded Phaeacian maiden, Nausicaa.
And may the Gods grant thee all thy heart's desires :
a husband and a home, and a mind at one with his may they
give, a good gift, for there is nothing mightier and nobler
than when man and tcife are of one heart and mind in a house;
a grief to their foes, and to their friends great joy; but
their own hearts know it the best.
37. THE PALACE OF MENELAUS AT SPARTA
" The Odyssey," book IV, 11. 1 if., Batcher and Lang's Translation
At Sparta Telemachus, son of Odysseus, found King Menelaus
inhabiting a palace far more magnificent than the paternal one at
Ithaca. What the Homeric bard conceived an ideal royal house
should be, and how he deemed noble guests ought to be received,
is here set forth. Note (1) the prevalence of princely hospitality ;
(2) that the sum of all worldly goods seemed to be a magnificent
feast.
[Telemachus goes on a journey to Menelaus, king of Lacedaemon,
to see if he can get any news of his father Odysseus.]
78 EARLIEST GREECE
They came to Lacedsemon, low lying amongst the caverned
hills, and drove to the palace of famous Menelaus. Him
they found giving a feast to his many kin, in honor of the
wedding of his noble son and daughter [the daughter to the
son of Achilles, the son to the daughter of Alector]. . . .
Thus feasting through the great vaulted hall, the neighbors
and kinsmen of Menelaus were making merry.
Meanwhile these twain, Telemachus and the splendid son
of Kestor [his escort], made halt at the entry of the gate,
they and their horses. And the lord Eteonus came forth
and saw them, the ready squire of renowned Menelaus : he
went through the palace to bear the tidings to the shepherd
of the people, and standing near spake to him winged
words.
" Menelaus, fosterling of Zeus, 1 here are wo strangers . . .
two men like to the lineage of great Zeus himself. Say, shall
we loose their swift horses from under the yoke, or send
them onward to some other host who shall receive them
kindly ? "
Then sore displeased answered him fair-haired Menelaus,
"Eteonus [now thou talkest folly . . .]. Surely we our-
selves ate much hospitable cheer of other men, ere we twain
came hither, even if in time to come Zeus haply give .us
rest from harm. Nay, go, unyoke the horses of the strangers,
and as for the men, lead them forward to the house to feast
with us."
So spake he, and Eteonus hasted from the hall, and called
the other ready squires to follow him. So they loosed the
sweating horses from beneath the yoke, and fastened them
at the stalls of the horses, and threw beside them spelt, and
therewith mixed white barley, then tilted the chariot up
against the shining faces of the gateway, and led the men
into the lordly hall. And they beheld and marveled as they
gazed throughout the palace of the king, the fosterling of
1 Note how a Homeric king would claim divine lineage.
900 B.C.] A FARM LABORER 79
Zeus : for there was a gleam as of the sun or moon through
the lofty palace of renowned iMeiielaus. But after they had
gazed their fill, they went to the polished baths and bathed.
And when the maids had bathed them and anointed them
with olive oil. and put on them fleecy cloaks and doublets?
they sat on chairs by Menelaus son of Atreus [and joined
in the feasting . . .]. So Menelaus of the fair hair greeted
the twain and spake : " Break bread and be glad, and there-
after when ye have supped, we will ask what men ye are :
for the blood of your parents is not lost in you, but years of
the line of men that are sceptered kings, the fosterlings of
Zeus ; for no churls could beget sous like you."
So spake he, and took and set before them the fat ox-chine
roasted, which they had given him as his own mess by way
of honor. And they stretched forth their hands upon the
good cheer set before them. Xow when they had put from
them the desire of meat and drink, Teleinachus spake to the
son of Nestor, holding his head close to him, so that the
others might not hear.
" Son of Nestor, delight of my heart, mark the flashing of
bronze through the echoing halls, and the flashing of gold
and of amber, and of silver and of ivory. Such like, me-
thinks, is the court of Olympian Zeus within, for the world
of things that are here : wonder comes over me as I look
thereon."
[Whereupon Menelaus, overhearing, relates by what sore trials
he came by all this wealth and glory.]
38. A FARM LABORER IN HOMERIC TIMES
" The Odyssey/ 1 book XVill, 11. 350 ff. Adapted from Batcher and Lang's
Translation
In the Homeric age most of the field and house labor was per-
formed by bondsmen whose condition, however, does not seem to
have been very miserable. Free laborers, however, working for a
80 EARLIEST GREECE
hire in kind were not unknown, but they were a despised
class, and only theoretically superior to the bondsmen. Note
incidentally that manual labor, especially on the farm, was not
held degrading to men of high rank. It was no insult to challenge
Eurymachus to a plowing contest.
[Eurymachus, an intruder into Odysseus's home and a suitor for
his wife Penelope, ridicules Odysseus, who has returned disguised
as a beggar.]
Jeering he spoke to his friends : " ITot without the gods'
pleasure has this fellow come hither to Odysseus's house
at least the torchlight verily flares forth from that head of
his, for there are no hairs however thin upon it."
Then he spoke, addressing Odysseus, waster of cities:
" Stranger, would you be my hired worker ? Then I might
take you for my man upon my upland farm, and there
you could gather stones for walls and set out tall trees. I
would give you steady ration, and provide clothing, likewise
shoes for your feet. However, since you are practiced only
in rascality, you will not care to go and toil in the field, but
will choose rather to go louting it through the land, that you
may have wherewithal to feed your ever-hungry belly."
Then Odysseus of many counsels answering him, said,
"Eurymachus, I wish there might be a trial of labor betwixt
us two, in the spring season when the long days begin. It
should be in the deep grass, and I ought to have a crooked
scythe and you another like it that we might try each other
in the matter of labor, pushing clear until late eventide, and
grass there should be in plenty. Or would again that there
were oxen to drive, the very best that there are, large tawny
ones, of equal age and strength to bear the yoke and endur-
ance untiring ! And it should be a field four acres large,
with soil to take the plow. Then you should see me,
whether I would cut a clean furrow unbroken before ine, or
no ! Or would that this very day Zeus might waken war
whencesoever he would, and that I had a shield, two spears,
700 B.C.] HESIOD'S ADVICE TO FARMERS 81
and a helm of bronze, well fitting on my temples : then
you would see me mingling in the forefront of the battle
and you would not taunt me with this my belly ! "
39. HESIOD'S ADVICE TO FABLERS
Hesiod's "Works and Days," 11. 380 ff., Bohn translatioa
The extracts from Hesiod which follow are upon matters which
a later age would cast in prose, not poetry. Under the guise of
divers admonitions to his unjust and slothful brother Perses, the
old hard of Boeotia has succeeded in preparing what we may call
the first text book ever produced in a European language. The
duty of hard work was never taught more industriously than by
Hesiod, and through all his poems run evidences of the sullen dis-
content felt in even his early century by the toiling " masses " against
the lordly " classes." Hesiod has no gospel of revolution to preach :
he simply sets forth the misery of the sluggard, and the relative
happiness of the industrious. The instructions given in his poems
often contain much shrewdness, and no doubt in their day repre-
sented high worldly wisdom. The first extract here given is typical
of his precepts for farmers ; the second gives some hints of the
problems of the early sea traders.
When the Pleiads, born of Atlas, rise, begin thy harvest;
but thy plowing begin only when they set. Now these,
mark thee, are hidden for forty nights and days, and again
in the revolving years they appear first when the sickle is
sharpened. . . . This truly is the law of the fields, as well as
for them who dwell near the sea, as those who inhabit the
wooded valleys, a fertile soil, afar from the swelling sea.
Sow stripped, plow stripped, and work stripped, if thou
wouldst gather the works of Demeter, all in their seasons,
so that each may grow for thee in due time, lest in anywise,
brought to want while awaiting them, thou must go
begging to other men's houses, and so come to nothing. As
e'en now thou (my brother) hast come to me, but I will not
add more [woes] to thee, nor measure out work in addition:
82 EARLIEST GREECE
therefore work, foolish Perses : toil at the works which the
gods have destined for mortals, lest ever with children and
wife grieving thine heart, thou shouldest seek thy substance
among neighbors, and they should cast thee off. ... I urge
thee then to study how to pay thy debts and to avoid hunger.
First of all [to be a successful farmer] get a house, a wife,
and a plowing ox. 1 . . . [The wife] will tend thy cattle,
and thy needful farm implements, lest if thou wouldest bor-
row from another he may refuse to give them, and thou
wouldest for lack of them be deprived of thy harvest -when
the season is over. Put not off (thy toil) till the morrow or
the day after, for it is not the sluggish man or the putter-off,
who fills up his garner : but diligence increases the fruit of
toil. A dilatory man ever wrestles with losses.
When the first season of plowing has appeared to
mortals, then do thou rouse thyself, thy servants too, and
plow during the season, whether dry or wet, hasting right
early, so that thy corn lands be full. Turn up the soil in the
spring, and the ground fresh-tilled will not in the summer
mock thy hopes : and sow thy fallow land while yet (the
soil) is light. Fallow land is a guardian from death and
ruin, and a soother of children. Make vows too unto Zeus the
Infernal (Pluto) and to chaste Demeter, that they may load
the -ripe holy seed corn of Demeter. . . . [Plow carefully
and] let the servant boy behind, carrying a mattock, cause
sorrow for the birds while he covers up the seed. For good
management is best for mortals, and surely bad management
is worst. Thus, if the Lord of Olympus afterward gives
a prosperous end, will the ears bend to the earth with
fullness, and thou wilt drive the cobwebs from the bins,
and I trust thou wilt rejoice, taking for thyself the sub-
stance stored up within. So wilt thou -come in plenty to
[the winter].
1 Note how these things are lumped together. There was no sentiment
among the agriculturalists of early Boeotia.
700 B.C.] ADVICE TO NAVIGATORS 83
Heswd's Advice on Navigation. ('' Works and Days'" In. 643.)
Commend a small ship, on a large one stow thy freight.
Greater will then be thy cargo, and greater thy gain upon
gain, at least if the winds keep from evil blasts. When
thou shalt have turned thy mind towards merchandise and
desired to escape debts and grievous hunger [as a farmer],
then will I show thee the courses of the loud-roaring sea. . . .
For fifty days after the summer solstice, when summer the
time of hard work has ended, sailing is seasonable for mortals.
Then your ship is not likely to founder, nor the sea to destroy
its crew, unless with fell intent, earth-shaking Poseidon, or
Zeus, King of Immortals, should will their destruction, for
with them is the destiny of good and bad alike. At that
season the breezes are clear, and the deep free from danger.
Then in security, relying on the winds, drag your swift ship
down to the sea, and stow in it all the cargo : but haste at
full speed home again, wait not for the [time of the] new
wine, the autumn rain, the coming winter, and the direful
blasts of the South wind, which is then wont to disturb the
sea, following Zeus's copious rains in the autumn, and mak-
ing the deep perilous.
CHAPTER V
THE EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
With the passing of the Homeric Age we come by insensible
transitions into a period where authentic historical records begin
to exist. We need -no longer study a "civilization" merely, but the
actual annals of the city states (poleis) of Greece. Genuine per-
sonalities, poets, warriors, lawgivers, loom before us with increas-
ing clearness. We get a number of chapters out of Herodotus,
wherein the " Father of History " throws a most fascinating light
upon the events of the two centuries preceding his own. Again
we can use the writings of such authors as Strabo and Plutarch,
who lived, indeed, in the later Roman age, but who were able to
compile accurate information from sources now quite lost to us.
The whole Greek civilization, it should be remembered, was a
civilization of small cities, perhaps, on an average, with a popula-
tion of not over five to twenty thousand. Only Athens, Sparta,
and a few other communities would be larger. In such narrow
surroundings, life gained in intensity what it lost in variety. Pol-
itics were hot, fierce, personal. Patriotism was a thing very local
indeed. At first there is seemingly no cohesive principle among
the scattered, often warring, Greek poleis. Then gradually certain
factors of unity come into play : the Pan-Hellenic games, the
Delphic oracle, and especially the colonizing movement, which,
by bringing the Greeks into contact with downright aliens, taught"
them their own essential unity. Also the spread of the power of
certain great states, especially of Sparta, makes the Greeks con-
scious of a common nationality. Most of these significant factors
are illustrated in the extracts presented ; while other extracts are
intended to show how, while other communities were seemingly
far more aggressive, Athens was undergoing a course of develop-
ment which was to enable her to make the next age of Greek
history peculiarly her own.
84
600 B.C.] AX EARLY HYMN TO APOLLO 85
40. AN EABLY HYMN TO APOLLO
Part of the "Homeric Hymn to Apollo." Adapted from Buckley's Translation
The cult of Apollo at the tiny isle of Delos was extremely an-
cient. At the festival held there by the lonians, there were mu-
sical and gymnastic contests, as at Olympia. The hymn which is
here in part given dates perhaps from about 600 B.C., and was
one of a cycle of hymns called Homeric, as produced by bards
claiming to imitate Homer. As the worship of Apollo developed,
a conception of moral nobility and righteousness associated itself
with the god unlike the earlier stories; but this elevation is
more evident in dealing with Apollo of Delphi than Apollo of
Delos.
[After King Apollo had been born of Leto, at the tiny
isle of Delos and had made it his shrine,] then all Delos be-
came heavy with gold, beholding the offspring of Zeus and
Leto, rejoicing because the god had chosen it out of the
islands and mainland, to settle therein his dwelling, and
had loved it exceedingly. So it did nourish, even as when
the crest of a hill rejoices with the woodland foliage. But
thou, Lord of the Silver Bow, far-darting King Apollo,
sometimes dost thou also walk on rocky Cynthus, and some-
times dost thou haste away to the [other] isles and their
island dwellers. Thine are full many temples and leafy
groves ; all the craggy rocks are dear to thee, dear too are
the towering summits of the hills and the ocean-flowing
rivers. Yet, Phoebus, is thy heart's delight still at Delos :
there the lonians in their training robes gather to honor
thee; they, their children, and their stately wives. Mindful
of thee, they delight thee [with games], boxing, dancing,
and the song when the contest joins. A man would say [on
beholding them] that they were immortal, yea, ageless, these
lonians, who are gathered before thy temple. For he would
see hoTY they all take pleasure : and would have delight in
his mind, beholding alike the men and their fair-zoned
86 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
women, likewise their swift ships, and their abounding
wealth.
Besides these, marvel, come the Delian girls, the glory
whereof shall never perish, they the servants of the Far
Darter, who when they have first chanted Apollo in their
hymns, and then Leto, and Artemis, whose joy is in her
archery, sing a [choral] hymn, and delight the multitude
of men. Well do they know how to imitate the voices and
tones of all men : yea, every man present would say that he
himself was speaking, so beautiful is the song they weave.
Hail then to you, O Leto, Apollo, O Artemis : hail to
you each and all : ... and never will I [the bard] cease to
hymn the praise of far-darting Apollo of the Silver Bow :
the child of the fair-haired Leto !
41. How GLATJCTJS TRIED TO TEMPT THE DELPHIC
ORACLE
Herodotus, book VI, chaps. 86, 87. Rawlinson's Translation
The high standard of personal righteousness upheld by the
priests of the Delphic Apollo is illustrated by this story, which
makes the god take a far sterner view of human treachery than
the lax and unmoral deities of the Homeric Age. Apollo of Delphi
hardly less than Jehovah of Israel was not lightly to be tempted !
The story goes that there lived in Lacedaernon [about
600 B.C.] one G-laucus, son of Epicydes . . . whose charac-
ter for justice was such as to place him above all other
Spartans. . . . Now there came a certain Milesian to Sparta,
and [deposited a large quantity of silver with him to keep
safe until some authorized person should come to demand
it] " since," he said, " I am well assured it will be safe in
thy keeping" ... So Grlaueus took the deposit on the
terms given. Many years had gone by when the sons of the
man by whom the money had been left came to Sparta, and
600 B.C.] GLAUCUS AND THE ORACLE 87
had an interview with Glaucus, whereat they produced
their vouchers, and asked to have the money returned to
them. But Glaucus sought to refuse, and answered them,
" I have no recollection of the matter : nor can I bring to
mind any of the particulars whereof you speak, when I
remember I will certainly do what is just. If I had the
money you have a right to receive it back : but if it was
never given rne, I shall put the Greek law in force against
you. 1 At present I give no answer : but four months hence
I will settle the business. :>
So the Milesians went away sorrowful, considering the
money wholly lost to them. As for Glaucus, he made a
journey to Delphi, and there consulted the oracle. To his
question if he should swear [away the debt], and so make
prize of the money, the Pythoness returned for answer
these lines following:
"Best for the present it were, Glaucus, to do as thou wishest,
Swearing the oath to prevail, and so make prize of the money.
Swear then death is the lot e'en of those who never swear falsely.
Yet hath the Oath-God a son who is nameless and footless and hand-
less;
Mighty in strength he approaches to vengeance, and whelms in de-
struction
All who belong to the race or the house of the man who is perjured.
But oath-keeping men leave hehind them a flourishing offspring/'
Glaucus when he heard these words earnestly besought
the god to pardon his question, but the Pythoness replied
that it was as bad to have tempted the god as it would have
been to have done the deed. Glaucus, however, sent for the
Milesian strangers and gave them back their money . . .
[Nevertheless] Glaucus [three generations later] had not a
single descendant; nor is there any family known as his
root and branch has he been removed from Sparta.
1 i.e. clear himself by taking oath that the claim was false.
88 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
42. CBCESUS AND THE DELPHIC ORACLE
Herodotus, book I, chaps. 46-56. Rawlinson's Translation
The story here given of ho\v Croesus the Lydian consulted the
Delphic oracle before the collision with Persia is another of He-
odotus's peculiarly interesting stories.
Note : (1) how the influence of Delphi had spread from Hellas
into Lydia ; (2) how cleverly the oracle covered its tracks in case
of an issue unfavorable to Croesus.
At the end of this time the grief of Croesus was inter-
rupted by intelligence from abroad. He learnt that Cyrus,
the son of Cambyses, had destroyed the empire of Astyages,
the son of Cyaxares ; and that the Persians were becoming
daily more powerful. This led him to consider with him-
self whether it were possible to check the growing power of
that people before it came to a head. With this design he
resolved to make instant trial of the several oracles in
Greece, and of the one in Libya. So he sent his messenger
in different directions, some to Delphi, some to Abae in
Phocis, and some to Dod6na ; others to the oracle of Am-
phiaratis; others to that of Trophonius; others again to
that of Branchidse in Milesia. These were the Greek
oracles which he consulted. To Libya he sent another
embassy, to consult the oracle of Ammon. These messen-
gers were sent to test the knowledge of the oracles, that, if
they were found really to return true answers, he might
send a second time, and inquire if he ought to attack the
Persians.
[According to the story, the Delphic Oracle and the oracle of
Amphiaraiis were the only two which convinced Croesus that they
spoke truly.]
After this Croesus having resolved to propitiate the
Delphic god with a magnificent sacrifice, offered up three
thousand of every kind of sacrificial beast, and besides made
547 B.C.] CROESUS AND THE ORACLE 89
a huge pile and placed upon it couches covered with silver
and with gold, and golden goblets, and robes and vests of
purple : all which he burnt in hope of thereby making him-
self more secure of the god ? s favor. Farther he issued his
orders to all his people to offer a sacrifice according to their
means.
[In addition to this Croesus took a treasure of gold and silver
and sent it to Delphi and another to the shrine of Amphiaraiis in
Bceotia near Thebes.]
The messenger who had charge of conveying these
treasures to the shrines, received instructions to ask the
oracles whether Croesus should go to war with the Persians,
and if so, whether he should strengthen himself by the
forces of an ally. Accordingly, when they had reached
their destinations and presented the gifts, they proceeded
to consult the oracles in the following terms : " Croesus,
king of Lydia and other countries, believing that these are
the only real oracles in all the world, has sent you such
presents as your discoveries deserved, and now inquires of
you whether he shall go to war with the Persians, and if so,
whether he shall strengthen himself by the forces of a con-
federate." Both the oracles agreed in the tenor f of their
reply, which was in each case a prophecy that if Croesus
attacked the Persians, he icould destroy a mighty empire, and a
recommendation to him to look and see who were the most
powerful of the Greeks, and to make alliance with them.
At the receipt of these 'oracular replies Croesus was over-
joyed, and feeling sure now that he would destroy the em-
pire of the Persians, he sent once more to Pytho, and
presented to the Delphians, the number of whom he had as-
certained, two gold staters apiece. In return for this the
Delphians granted to Croesus and the Lydians the privilege
of precedency in consulting the oracle, exemption from all
charges, the most honorable seat at the festivals, and the
90 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
perpetual right of becoming at pleasure citizens of their
town.
After sending those presents to the Delphians, Croesus a
third time consulted the oracle ; for having once proved its
truthfulness, he wished to make constant use of it. The
question whereto he now desired an answer was "Whether
his kingdom would be of long duration ? " The following
was the reply of the Pythoness:
" Wait till the time shall come \vhen a mule is monarch of Media ;
Then, thou delicate Lydiau, away to the pehbles of Hermus :
Haste, oh, haste thee away, nor blush to behave like a coward."
Of all the answers that had reached him, this pleased him
far the best, for it seemed incredible that a mule should
ever come to be king of the Medes, and so he concluded that
the sovereignty would never depart from himself or his
seed after him.
[.Thus encouraged, Croesus went to war, little thinking that
Cyrus his enemy was that " mule " having a Persian father and
a Median mother. As a result he was overthrown and captured,
and his kingdom annexed to Persia, but the oracle if the story
is to be believed was vindicated, the "mighty empire" which he
had destroyed being his own.]
43. DELPHI AND THE AMPHICTYONS
Strabo, " Geography," book IX, chap. 3, H I. Bohu Translation
The best description which we have of the shrine of Apollo at
Delphi, its location, and of the " Amphictyonic Council " that had
watch over it, is given by Strabo. He wrote about the beginning
of the first century A.D., but in his time the traditions, and to some
extent the actual customs, of ancient Delphi were well pre-
served. It is needless to point out how the support of a common
shrine and cultus like this made for the growth of a sense of unity
among the Hellenes.
DELPHI AN 7 D THE AMPEICTYOXS 91
The whole of [Mount] Parnassus is esteemed sacred. It
contains caves and other places which are regarded with honor
and reverence. Of these the most celebrated and the most
beautif ul is Corycian, a cave of the nymphs. . . . The two
most celebrated cities in this country are Delphi and
Elateia. Delphi is renowned for the temple of the
Pythian Apollo, and the antiquity of its oracle, since
Agamemnon is said by the poet to have consulted it, for the
minstrel is introduced singing of the " fierce contest of Odys-
seus and Achilles, son of Peleus, how once they contended
together, and Agamemnon, king of men, was pleased, for so
Phoebus Apollo had foretold by the oracle in the illustrious
Pytho." 1
Delphi then was celebrated on this account. Elateia was
famous as being the largest of the cities in this quarter, and
for its very convenient position upon the passes [in the hills],
for he who is the master of this city commands the entrance
into Phocis and Boeotia. We have noticed that Parnassus
itself is situated on the western boundaries of Phocis. The
western side of this mountain is occupied by the Locri
Ozohe,on the southern is Delphi, a rocky spot, in shape like to
a theater : on its summit is an oracle, and also the city which
comprehends a circuit of sixteen stadia [something over one
and a half miles]. Above it lies Lycoreia; here the Del-
phians were formerly settled above the temple. At present 2
they live close to it around the fountain of Castalia. In
front of the city, on the southern part is Cirphis, a precipi-
tous hill, leaving in the intermediate space a wooded ravine,
through which flows the river Pleistus. Below Cirphis near
the sea is Cirrha, an ancient city whence there is an ascent
to Delphi of about eighty stadia [over eight miles]. . . .
Adjoining Cirrha is the fertile Crissean plain. Next in or-
der follows another city, Crisa. [These cities are in ruins ;
* " Odyssey," book VIH, 75 ff.
2 Strabo is writing in the Roman Age : he probably died in 19 A.D.
92 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
the Crisaeans destroyed Cirrha; and later Crisa was de-
stroyed in 595 B.C. in the " Crissean War " waged by the
Amphictyonic League, because the inhabitants levied
duties on imports from Sicily and Italy, and laid] grievous
imposts on those who resorted to the temple, contrary to the
decrees of the Amphictyons. . . .
The Temple at Delphi and the Pythoness
The temple at Delphi is now [in the writer's day] much
neglected, although formerly held in the highest veneration.
Proof of the respect which was paid to it is seen in the treas-
ure houses, built at the expense of communities and princes
where were deposited the riches dedicated to sacred ends, [and
here, too, are] the works of most eminent artists, the site of
the Pythian games, as well as a multitude of famous oracles.
The place where the oracle [of Apollo] is delivered is said
to be a deep hollow cavern, the entrance whereof is not very
wide. From it rises an exhalation which inspires a divine
frenzy. Over the mouth [of the cavern] is placed a lofty
tripod on which the Pythoness ascends to receive the ex-
halation, after which she gives the prophetic responses in
verse or prose. The prose is adapted to measure by poets
who are in the service of the temple.
Although the highest honor is paid to this temple on
account of the oracle, for it was the most exempt of any
from deception, yet its reputation was in part due to its
situation in the center of all Hellas, both within and with-
out the Isthmus [of Corinth], It was also conceived to
be the center of the habitable earth, and was called the
Navel of the World." A fable referred to by Pindar,
was invented, according to which two eagles (or as others
say two crows) set free by Zeus, one from the east, and one
from the west, alighted together at Delphi. In the triangle
is seen a sort of navel wrapped in bands, and surmounted
by figures representing the birds of the fable.
DELPHI AND THE AMPHIGTYOXS 93
TJie Ampltictyonic Council
As the situation of Delphi is convenient, persons easih
assembled there, particularly those from the neighboring
region, from which the Amphictyonic Council is drawn.
It is the business of this body to deliberate on public affairs,
but more especially is intrusted to it the guardianship of
the temple for the common good: for large sums of money
were deposited there, and votive offerings, which required
great vigilance and religious care. The early history of
this body is unknown, but among the names which are
recorded Acrisius [a mythical king of Argos] appears [by
tradition] to have been the first who regulated its consti-
tution, determined what cities should have votes in the
council, and assigned the number of votes and the mode of
voting. To some cities he gave a single vote each, or a
vote to two cities, or to several cities conjointly. He also
defined the class of questions which might arise between
the several cities, which were to be submitted to the
decision of the Amphictyonic tribunal; and subsequently
many other regulations were made. ... At first twelve
cities are said to have assembled, each of which sent a
" Pylagoras." The convention met twice per year, in spring
and in autumn. But latterly a greater number of cities
sent deputies. They called both the spring and the autumn
meetings "Pylaean," because they met at Pylae [i.e. "The
Gates " in the mountains] which is also the name of Ther-
mopylae [The "Hot Gates "]. The Pylagorae sacrificed to
Demeter.
In the beginning only the people of the district gathered,
or consulted the oracle: but afterward people resorted
thither from a distance for this very end, and sent gifts
and constructed treasure houses, as did Croesus [king of
Lydia] and his father Alyattes, also some Italians, and
the Siceli [native Sicilians].
94 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
44. A DESCRIPTION OP OLYMPIA IN THE DAYS OF ITS
GLORY
Pausanias, book V, chap. VII if. Frazer's Translation, considerably
abridged
What Olympia was in the days of its glory may be judged by
the following description by Pausanias, who visited the spot in the
second century A.D. In his age all the famous buildings were still
intact, the game* were maintained in the spirit of the old tradi-
tions, and the signs of decadence at least were unmarked. As
he himself indicates, the games were once vastly simpler affairs
than in the later days. At first they probably attracted the folk
of the neighboring parts of the Peloponnesus merely : and very
likely it was not until the sixth century B.C. that they began to
be frequented by athletes from all parts of Hellas, or to be visited
by the hardly less characteristic "Religious Embassies" sent by
the several city-states to show forth their wealth and elegance
under the guise of bringing offerings to Olympian Zeus.
In the final part of this extract is a striking description of
the renowned statue of Zeus, the masterpiece of Phidias, the great
Athenian sculptor of the fifth century B.C. It should be re-
membered, however, that Olympia had been a famous center for
centuries before this wonder was created.
On reaching Olympia you see at last the waters of the
Alpheus, a broad and noble stream, fed by seven important
rivers, not to speak of lesser tributaries.
With regard to the Olympic games, the Elean antiquaries
say that Cronos first reigned in heaven, and that a temple
was made for him at Olympia by the men of that age, who
were Darned the " Golden Kace." But when Zeus was born,
Rhea committed the safe-keeping of the child to the Dactyls,
who came from Ida in Crete, and their names were Hera-
cles, Pseonaeus, Epimenes, lasius, and Idas. Then in sport
Heracles, as the eldest, set his brethren to run a race, and
crowned the victor with a branch of wild olive, of which
they had such abundance that they slept on its fresh green
776 B.C.] OLYMPIA IX ITS GLORY 95
leaves. They say that the wild olive was brought to Greece
by Heracles from the land of the Hyperboreans. He made
the rule that the games should be celebrated every fourth
year. Some say that Zeus wrestled here with Crouos for
the kingdom, others that Zeus held the games in honor
of his victory over Cronos. Amongst those who are said
to have gained victories is Apollo, who is declared to have
outrun Hermes in a race, and defeated Ares in boxing.
That is why the flutes play the Pythian air [sacred to
Apollo], while the competitors in the pentathluni l are leap-
ing, because that air is sacred to Apollo, and the god him-
self had won Olympic crowns.
[After a long tradition of contests in which gods and
heroes were the main participants] Iphitus "renewed" the
games, 2 and people had forgotten the ancient customs, and
they only gradually " remembered " them, and as they re-
membered them piece by piece, they added them to the
games. At the point where the unbroken tradition of the
Olympiads begins, there were only prizes for. the foot race,
and Coroebus the Elean won the first race. Afterward in
the fourteenth Olympiad (724-720 B.C.) the double-circuit
foot race was added, and Hypenus, a Pisan, won the wild
olive crown in it. In the eighteenth they "remembered"
the pentathlum and the wrestling. In the twenty-third
Olympiad they " restored " the prizes for boxing. In the
twenty-fifth they admitted the race for grown horses, in
four horse chariots. Eight Olympiads later they admitted
the pancratium s for men, and the (single) horse race. The
origin of the competitions for boys, however, is not traced
1 A contest combining running, discus hurling, leaping, javelin casting,
and wrestling ; won by the athlete conquering in the most events.
2 From the statement following it is clear enough that the games were
then begun about this time (776 B.C.) and were only yery gradually
brought to their later elaboration.
9 A combination of wrestling and boxing ; it was among the most brutal
of all the Greek sports.
96 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
to any ancient tradition ; they were introduced by a resolu-
tion of the Eleans [who presided over and controlled the
general policy of the games]. Prizes for boys in running
and wrestling were instituted in the thirty-seventh Olym-
piad: in the forty-first they introduced boxing for boys.
The race between men in armor was sanctioned in the
sixty-fifth Olympiad, for the purpose, I presume, of training
men in war. The race between pairs of full-grown horses
was instituted in the ninety-third. In the ninety-ninth
they began the chariot races between cars each drawn by
four foals. In the hundred and forty-fifth Olympiad prizes
were offered for boys in the pancratium.
[A number of contests, e.g. between mule carts, were tried
for a while, then given up.] As for the mule-cart race it
had neither dignity nor antiquity to commend it, and the
carts were drawn by mules, and an ancient curse rests on
the people of Elis if ever the animal is born in their land.
The present rules as to the presidents of games are not
what they were originally. Iphitus [the founder] presided
over the games, and after him, the descendants of Oxylus
did likewise. But in the fiftieth Olympiad two men, se-
lected by lot from the whole body of the Eleans, were in-
trusted with the presidency of the festival, and for a long
time two was the number of the presidents. However, in
the twenty-fifth Olympiad nine umpires were appointed,
three to take care of the chariot race, three for the pentath-
lum [a very important contest] and three to take charge of
the other contests. In the next Olympiad but one a tenth
umpire was added. In the hundred and third Olympiad
the Eleans were divided into twelve tribes, and one umpire
was taken from each of the twelve. In the hundred and
eighth they reverted to the number ten, and so it has re-
mained ever since.
The temple and image of Zeus here were made from the
booty at the time the Eleans conquered Pisa and the vassal
438B.C.] OLYMPIA IN ITS GLORY 97
states that revolted with her. That the image was made by
Phidias is attested by the inscription under the feet of Zeus :
" Phidias, Charmides's son, an Athenian made me."
The god is seated on a throne, he is made of gold and
ivory, on his head is a wreath made in imitation of the
sprays of olive. In his right hand he carries a Mke (Vic-
tory), also of ivory and gold; she wears a ribbon, and on her
head is a wreath. In the left hand of the god is a scepter
curiously wrought in all the metals ; the bird perched on
the scepter is an eagle. The sandals of the god are of gold,
and so is his robe. On the robe are wrought figures of ani-
mals and lily flowers. The throne is adorned with gold and
precious stones, also with ebony and ivory ; and there are
figures painted, and images -wrought on it. There are four
Victories in the attitude of dancing at each foot of the
throne, and two others at the bottom of each foot. [Then
follows much detail about the mythological characters rep-
resented by Phidias on the foot of the throne or about it]
I know that measurements of the height and breadth of
the Zeus of Olympia have been recorded, but I cannot praise
the men who took them. For even the measurements fall
far short of the impression made by the image upon the
spectator. Verily the god himself, they say, bore witness
to the art of Phidias. For when the image was completed
Phidias prayed that the god would give a sign if the work
were to his mind, and immediately, they say, Zeus hurled
a thunderbolt into the ground at the spot where a bronze
urn stood at the time of my visit.
The ground in front of the image is flagged not with white
but with black stone. Round about the black pavement runs
a raised edge of Parian marble, to keep in the olive oil that
is poured out. For oil is good for the image of Olympia,
and it is this which keeps it from suffering through the
marshy situation of the Altis [the sacred grove].
98 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
45. TEACHINGS OF THE EARLY GREEK SAGES UPON
RELIGION AND MORALITY
Collected in Pelton, "Ancient and Modern Greece," vol. I, p. 457
In the first historic period of Greece, religious and moral precepts
were likely to be of a practical, simple nature. The " Sages "
i.e. men who were supposed to know all the small stock of human
wisdom, either taught orally, or composed brief didactic poems
for the benefit of their disciples. However simple their philosophy,
or superficial their investigation, the moral tone of their teachings
was elevating, and for the vast weal of the generation in which
they lived.
Thales taught, " God is the oldest of all things, for He is
without being"; that "death differeth not from life, the
soul being immortal" ; that "a bad man can hide neither
evil actions nor evil thoughts from the divine power" : and
that " the world is tbe fairest of all things, for. it is the
work of God."
Cheilon's precepts were, " Not to slander our neighbors ;
to be more ready to share the misfortunes than the pros-
perity of our friends ; to keep watch over ourselves : to suf-
fer harm rather than take a dishonest gain, to seek peace :
to honor age : to obey the laws."
Cleobulus said, "Do good to your friends that their friend-
ship may be strengthened : to your enemies that they may
become your friends. Be more eager to hear than to speak.
Avoid injustice. Bridle the love of pleasure. Bo violence
to no man. Instruct your children. Keep up no enmities."
Pythagoras is said to have taught : " That one Deity is
the source of all things. His form is light : His essence,
truth. He is the giver of good to those who love Him, and
as such is to be worshiped. He is the soul of all things
pervading and maintaining the Universe. Knowledge should
be sought as the means of approaching the nature and felicity
of the Deity."
734 B.C.] HOW SYRACUSE WAS FOUNDED 99
. Xenophaues affirmed, " There is one eternal, infinite, im-
mortal Being, by whom all things exist, and this One is God.
Incorporeal and omniscient, he hears all, and sees all, but
not by human senses. He is at once mind, wisdom, and eter-
nal existence."
46. How SYRACUSE WAS
Strabo, " Geography," book VI, chap. 2, IT 4. Bohn Translation
Syracuse in Sicily was probably the most important city
founded as a Greek colony. During a part of its history it was
probably the largest and richest city speaking the Hellenic tongue.
The manner of its founding, inquiry of Delphi as to the site,
etc., is very typical of all Greek colonies. Note also the admirable
location of Syracuse: at first on an island easy to defend, then
able to spread itself over an ample area on the mainland.
Archias sailing from Corinth [founded Syracuse] about
the same time that Naxos and Megara [other Sicilian colony
towns] were built. They say that Myscellus and Archias
having gone to Delphi at the same time to consult the oracle,
the god asked whether they would choose wealth or health ?
Then Archias preferred wealth, and Myscellus health:
upon which the oracle assigned [the site of] Syracuse to
the former to found, and Croton [in Italy] to the latter.
And certainly in like manner it fell out that the Crotonites
should dwell in a state so famed for its salubrity [as Strabo
has elsewhere described], and that so great riches should
have accrued to the Syracusans, that their name has been
embodied in the proverb applied to overrich men, " that
they have not yet a tenth of the riches of the Syracusans."
While Archias was on his voyage to Sicily he left Chersi-
crates, a chief of the race of the Heracleidse with a part of
the expedition to settle the island now called Corcyra, but
anciently called Scheria, and he when he had expelled
the Liburni who then possessed it established his colony
100 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
on the island. Arohias pursuing his route, met with certain
Dorians at Zephyriuin, [one of the southernmost headlands
of Italy] who had quitted the company of those who had
founded [Sicilian] Megara. These he took with him, and
in conjunction with them founded Syracuse. The city flour-
ished on account of the fertility of the country and the con-
venience of the harbors. The citizens became great rulers.
While under the lordship themselves of tyrants, they domi-
neered over the other states [of Sicily], and when 'freed
from despotism they set at liberty such as had been en-
. slaved by the Barbarians : of these Barbarians some were
the original islanders, some had come across from the main-
land. The Greeks suffered none of the Barbarians to ap-
proach the shore, although they were not able to expel them
entirely from the interior, for the Siculi, Sicani, Morget.es, and
some others still inhabit the island at the present day. . . .1
[Part of Syracuse is located upon] the island of Ortygia,
the circumference of which simply by itself is that of a
sizable city. Ortygia is connected with the mainland by a
bridge, and [boasts of] the fountain Arethusa, which flows
in such abundance as to form a river at once, and flows into
the sea. They say that it is the river Alpheus, which rises
in the Peloponnesus, and that it flows through the land be-
neath the sea to the place where the Arethusa rises and flows
into the sea. Some such proofs as these are given to prove
the fact. A certain chalice having fallen into the river at
Olympia [in Greece] was cast up by the springs of Arethusa,
and the fountain too is troubled by the sacrifices of oxen at
Olympia. Likewise Pindar following such stories, sings
how,
44 Ortygia, revered place of the reappearing of Alpheus,
The offset of renowned Syracuse. . . ."
[Strabo, however, treats the story as a very improbable
one, gravely concluding] many rivers, and in many places
i Strabo was writing before 19 A.D.
550 B.C.] THE COLONY OP NAUCRATIS 101
flow beneath the earth, bat none so great a distance : also
although there may be no inherent impossibility in this cir-
cumstance, yet the above-mentioned accounts are entirely
impossible.
47. THE COLONY OF NAUCRATIS iff EGYPT
Herodotus, book H, chaps. 178-179. Rawlinson's Translation
Naucratis was practically the only point in Egypt where the
Greeks were allowed to settle. It thus became a community of
much importance both for trade, and also for enabling the Greeks
to gather ideas and learning from the hoary civilization of Egypt,
to which they owed not a little.
Amasis 1 was partial to the Greeks, and among other
favors which he granted them, gave to such as liked to
settle in Egypt the city of Kaucratis for their residence.
To those who only wished to trade upon the coast, and did
not want to fix their abode in the country, he granted
certain lands where they might set up altars and erect
temples to the gods. Of these temples the grandest and
most famous, which is also the most frequented, is called the
"Hellenium." It was built conjointly by the lonians, Dori-
ans, and JEolians, the following cities taking part in the
work : the Ionian states of Chios, Teos, Phocaea, and Clazo-
mense ; Ehodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, and Phaslis of the
Dorians ; and MytilSne of the JEolians.
These are the states to whom the temple belongs, and
they, have the right of appointing the governors of the
factory ; the other cities which claim a share in the building
claim what in no sense belongs to them. Three nations,
however, consecrated for themselves separate temples the
^Bginetan one to Zeus, the Sainians to Hera, and the Mile-
sians to Apollo.
* King of Egypt, 570 to 525 B.C. He died shortly before the conquest of
the country by the Persians.
102 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
In ancient times there was no factory but Naucratis in
the whole of Egypt ; and if a person entered one of the
other mouths of the Nile, he was obliged to swear that
he had not come there of his own free will. Having so
done, he was bound to sail in his ship to the Canopic mouth,
or, were that impossible owing to the contrary winds, he
must take his wares by boat all round the Delta, and so
bring them to Naucratis, which had an exclusive privilege.
48. THBOGNIS THE POET LAMENTS THE MISRULE IN
MEGARA
Theognis's " Poems." Bohn Translation, p. 443. Frere, Translator
Theognis was no friend of democracies and demagogues. These
lines voice the feeling of vast numbers of outraged aristocrats,
during the civic commotions that shook the poet's home (Megara)
and many other cities.
Our commonwealth preserves its former frame,
Our common people are no more the same :
They that in skins and hides were rudely dressed,
Nor dreamt of law, nor sought to be redressed
By rules of right, but in the days of old
Flocked to the town, like cattle to the fold,
Are now the " Brave and Wise," and we, the rest,
(Their betters nominally, once the " Best")
Degenerate, debased, timid and mean !
Who can endure to witness such a scene ?
Their easy courtesies, the ready smile,
Prompt to deride, to flatter, and beguile !
Their utter disregard of right or wrong,
Of truth or honor ! Out of such a throng
(For any difficulties, any need,
For any bold design on manly deed)
Never imagine you can choose a just
Or steady friend, or faithful in his trust.
600 B.C.] THE REFORMS OF LYCURGUS 103
But change your habits ! 1 Let them go their way !
Be condescending, affable and gay !
Adopt with every man the style and tone
Most courteous and congenial with his own :
But in your secret counsels keep aloof
From feeble paltry souls : that, at the proof
Of danger and distress are sure to fail ;
For whose salvation nothing can avail.
Tlieognis on " The Exile's Fate "
How exile to a Hellene whose whole life was wrapped up in
his own little city was the next of calamities to death, is voiced
in these lines.
An exile has no friends ! no partisan
Is firm and faithful to the banished man :
A disappointment and a punishment
Harder to bear, and worse than banishment !
49. LYCTJR<HJS'S REFORMS IN SPARTA
Plutarch's "Life of Lycurgus," chaps. IX-XH
According to honored tradition, the Spartan people had become
luxurious and were in danger of declining in robust activity and
losing their national power, when they were given a peculiar and
admirable set of laws and social customs by Lycurgus, thanks
to which they became the most austere and uncorrupted folk in
Greece, as well as the most powerful in war. Modern criticism
has made it fairly evident that Lycurgus never lived, that he was
originally a god who became metamorphosed into a human law-
giver. The precise origin of the famous Spartan constitution is
decidedly uncertain ; but the institutions attributed to Lycurgus
are undoubted facts. Thanks to them and thanks to the peculiar
education given Spartan youths, Lacedsemon was the Jiegemon (i.e.
leading state) of Greece for many glorious centuries.
iPut aside aristocratic pride, and faU in with the " popular " habits of
the times.
104 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
Lycurgus commanded that all gold and silver coin should
be called in, and that only a sort of money made of iron
should be current, a great weight and quantity of which was
but very little worth; so that to lay up twenty or thirty
pounds there was required a pretty large closet, and, to re-
move it, nothing less than a yoke of oxen. With the diffu-
sion of this money, at once a number of vices were banished
from Lacedeemon ; for who would rob another of such a
coin ? Who would unjustly detain or take by force, or ac-
cept as a bribe, a thing which it was not easy to hide, nor
a credit to have, nor indeed of any use to cut in pieces ?
In the next place, he declared an outlawry of all needless
and superfluous arts ; but here he might almost have spared
his proclamation ; for they of themselves would have gone
after the gold and silver, the money which remained being
not so proper payment for curious work ; for, being of iron,
it was scarcely portable, neither, if they should take the
pains to export it, would it pass amongst the other Greeks,
who ridiculed it. So there was now no more means of pur-
chasing foreign goods and small ware; merchants sent no
shiploads into Laconian ports ; no rhetoric master, no itin-
erant fortune teller, or gold or silversmith, engraver, or jew-
eler, set foot in a country which had no money ; so that
luxury, deprived little by little of that which fed and fo-
mented it, wasted to nothing, and died away of itself. For
the rich had no advantage here over the poor, as their wealth
and abundance had no road to come abroad by, but were
shut up at home doing nothing. And in this way they be-
came excellent artists in common, necessary things; bed-
steads, chairs, and tables, and such like staple utensils in a
a family, were admirably well made there.
The Ordinances against Luxury
The third and most masterly stroke of this great lawgiver,
by which he struck a yet more effectual blow against luxury
600 B.C.] THE REFORMS OF LYCURGUS 105
and the desire of riches, was the ordinance he made, that
they should all eat in common, of the same bread and same
meat, and of kinds that were specified, and should not
spend their lives at home, laid on costly couches at splen-
did tables, delivering themselves up into the hands of their
tradesmen and cooks, to fatten them in corners, like greedy
brutes, and to ruin not their minds only, but their very
bodies, which, enfeebled by indulgence and excess, would
stand in need of long sleep, warm bathing, freedom from
work, and, in a word, of as much care and attendance as if
they were continually sick. It was certainly an extraordi-
nary thing to have brought about such a result as this, but
a greater yet to have taken away from wealth, as Theo-
phrastus observes, not merely the property of being cov-
eted, but its very nature of being wealth. For the rich,
being obliged to go to the same table with the poor, could
not make use of or enjoy their abundance, nor so much as
please their vanity by looking at or displaying it. Nor
were they allowed to take food at home first, and then at-
tend the public tables, for every one had an eye upon those
who did not eat and drink like the rest, and reproached
them with being dainty and effeminate. . . .
The Public Repasts at Sparta
But to return to their public repasts : these had several
names in Greek ; the Cretans called them andria, because
the men only came to them. The Lacedaemonians, however,
called them phiditia, that is, love feasts, because that, by
eating and drinking together, they had opportunity of mak-
ing friends. . . . They met by companies of fifteen, more
or less, and each of them stood bound to bring in monthly
a bushel of meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of
cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and some very small
sum of money to buy flesh or fish with. Besides this,
106 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE .
when any of them made sacrifice to the gods, they always
sent a dole to the common hall ; and, likewise, when auy of
them had been a hunting, he sent thither a part of the veni-
son he had killed; for these two occasions were the only
excuses allowed for supping at home. The custom of eat-
ing together was observed strictly for a great while after-
wards ; insomuch that King Agis himself, after having
vanquished the Athenians, sending for his dinners at his
return home, because he desired to eat privately with his
queen, was refused it by the polemarchs ; which refusal
when he resented so much as to omit next day the sacrifice
due for a war happily ended, they made him pay a fine.
Spartan Table Manners
They used to send their children to these tables as to
schools of temperance ; here they were instructed in state
affairs by listening to experienced statesmen; here they
learnt to converse with pleasantry, to make jests without
scurrility, and to take them without ill humor. In this point
of good breeding, the Lacedaemonians excelled particularly ?
but if any man were uneasy under it, upon the least hint
given there was no more to be said to him. It was custom-
ary also for the eldest man in the company to say to each of
them, as they carne in, " Through this " [pointing to tho
door], " no words go out." When any one had a desire to
be admitted into any of these little societies, v he was to go
through the following probation : each man in the company
took a little ball of soft bread, which they were to throw
into a deep basin, which a waiter carried round upon his
head ; those who liked the person to be chosen dropped their
ball into the basin without altering its figure, and those
who disliked him pressed it betwixt their fingers, and made
it fiat ; and this signified as much as a negative voice. And
if there were but one of these flattened pieces in the basin,
600 B.C.] SPARTAN DISCIPLINE 107
the suitor was rejected, so desirous were they that all the
members of the company should be agreeable to each other.
The basin was called caddichus, and the rejected candidate
had a name thence derived. Their most famous dish was the
black broth, which was so much valued that the elderly men
fed only upon that, leaving what flesh there was to the
younger.
They say that a certain king of Pontus, having heard
much of this black broth of theirs, sent for a Lacedaemonian
cook on purpose to make him some, but had no sooner
tasted it than he found it extremely bad, which the cook ob-
serving, told him, " Sir, to make this broth relish, you should
have bathed yourself first in the river Eurotas."
After drinking moderately, every man went to his home
without lights, for the use of them was, on all occasions,
forbid, to the end that they might accustom themselves to
march boldly in the dark. Such was the common fashion
of their meals.
50. THE SPARTAN DISCIPLINE FOR YOUTHS
Plutarch, " I/ife of Lycurgus," chaps. XVI-XIX
The foundations of Spartan success and power are undoubtedly
discovered in the drastic education given the boys and youths.
" Spartan discipline " succeeded admirably in its end of rendering
the young citizens absolutely obedient to the laws and customs of
the fatherland, and most efficient warriors in their own persons.
Sparta was mighty because in warfare she could set in the field an
army far superior in discipline and individual valor to that of any
other power in Greece. For developing anything but the military
virtues, however, this system, popularly ascribed to the hero Lycur-
gus, was grievously defective.
Nor was it in the power of the father to dispose of the
child as he thought fit; he was obliged to carry it before
certain triers at a place called Lesche ; these were some of
the elders of a tribe to which the child belonged; their
108 EARLY CENTURIES OP HISTORIC GREECE
business it was carefully to view the infant, and, if they
found it stout and well made, they gave order for its rear-
ing, and allowed to it one of the nine thousand shares of land
above mentioned for its maintenance, but if they found it
puny and ill-shaped, ordered it to be taken to what was called
the Apothetae, a sort of chasm under Taygetus ; as thinking
it neither for the good of the child itself, nor for the public
interest, that it should be brought up, if it did not, from the
very outset, appear made to be healthy and vigorous. There
was much care and art, too, used by the nurses ; they had
no swaddling bands ; the children grew up free and uncon-
strained in limb and form, and not dainty and fanciful
about their food ; not afraid in the dark, or of being left
alone; without any peevishness or ill humor or crying.
Upon this account, Spartan nurses were often brought up, or
hired by people of other countries ; and it is recorded that
she who suckled Alcibiades was a Spartan woman.
Lycurgus would not have pedagogues bought out of the
market for his young Spartans nor such as should sell their
pains ; nor was it lawful, indeed, for the father himself to
breed up the children after his own fancy; but as soon as
they were seven years old they were to be enrolled in certain
companies and classes, where they all lived under the same
order and discipline, doing their exercises and taking their
play together. Of these, he who showed the most conduct
and courage was made captain ; they had their eyes always
upon him, obeyed his orders, and underwent patiently what-
soever punishment he inflicted ; so that the whole course of
their education was one continued exercise of a ready and
perfect obedience. The old men, too, were spectators of
their performances, and often raised quarrels and disputes
among them, to have a good opportunity of finding out their
different characters, and of seeing which would be valiant,
which a coward, when they should come to more dangerous
encounters. Beading and writing they gave them, just
600 B.C.] SPARTAN DISCIPLINE 109
enough to serve their turn ; their chief care was to make
them good subjects, and to teach them to endure pain and
conquer in battle. To this end, as they grew in years, their
discipline was proportionably increased ; their heads were
close clipped, and they were accustomed to go barefoot, and
for the most part to play naked.
The Second Stage of the Spartan Education
After they were twelve years old, they were no longer al-
lowed to wear any undergarment ; they had one coat to
serve them a year ; * their bodies were hard and dry, with
but little acquaintance of baths and unguents ; these human
indulgences they were allowed only on some few particular
days in the year. They lodged^together in little bands upon
beds made of the rushes which grew by the banks of the river
Eurotas, which they were to break off with their hands without
a knife ; if ^it were winter, they mingled some thistledown
with their rushes, which it was thought had the property of
giving warmth. . . . The old men, too, had an eye upon them,
coming often to the grounds to hear and see them contend
either in wit or strength with one another, and this as seri-
ously and with as much concern as if they were their fathers,
their tutors, or their magistrates ; so that there scarcely was
* any time or place without some one present to put them in
mind of their duty, and punish them if they had neglected
it.
The Organization into Brotherhoods
Besides all this, there was always one of the best and
honestest men in the city appointed to undertake the charge
and governance of them ; he again arranged them into their
several bands, and set over each of them for their captain
the most temperate and boldest of those they called Irens,
1 The chiton and the himation, one inside and one oat, constituted the
ordinary Greek dress ; corresponding in use to the Roman tunic and toga,
110 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
who were usually twenty years old, two years out of the
boys ; and the eldest of the boys, again, were Mell-Irens, as
much as to say, who would shortly be men. This young
man, therefore, was their captain when they fought, and
their master at home, using them for the offices of his house;
sending the oldest of them to fetch wood, and the weaker
and less able, to gather salads and herbs, and these they
must either go without or steal; which they did by creeping
into the gardens, or conveying themselves cunningly and
closely into the eating houses : if they were taken in the
act, they were whipped without mercy, for thieving so ill
and awkwardly. They stole, too, all other meat they could
lay their hands on, looking out and watching all opportuni-
ties, when people were asleep or more careless than usual.
If they were caught, they were not only punished with
whipping, but hunger, too, being reduced to their ordinary
allowance, which was very slender, and so contrived on pur-
pose, that they might set about to help themselves, and be
forced to exercise their energy and address.
To return from whence we have digressed. So. seriously
did the Lacedaemonian children go about their stealing, that
a youth, having stolen a young fox and hid it under his
coat, suffered it to tear out his very bowels with its teeth
and claws, and died upon the place, rather than let it be
seen. What is practiced to this very day in Lacedsemon is
enough to gain credit to this story, for I myself have seen
several of the youths endure whipping to death at the foot
of the altar of Artemis, surnamed Orthia.
They taught them, also, to speak with a natural and grace-
ful raillery, and to comprehend much matter of thought in
few words. For Lycurgus, who ordered, as we saw, that a
great piece of money should be but of an inconsiderable
value, on the contrary would allow no discourse to be current
which did not contain in a few words a great deal of useful
and curious sense; children in Sparta, by a habit of long
SOLON AND CROESUS 111
silence, came to give just and sententious answers ; for, in-
deed, as loose and incontinent livers are seldom fathers of
many children, so loose and incontinent talkers seldom
originate many sensible words. King Agis, when some
Athenian laughed at their short swords, and said that the
jugglers on the stage swallowed them with ease, answered
him, " We find them long enough to reach our enemies with ";
and as their swords were short and sharp, so, it seems to
me, were their sayings. They reach the point and arrest
the attention of the hearers better than any other kind.
51. SOLON AND CROESUS
Herodotus, book I, chaps. 29-33
How Solon, the sage of Athens, visited Croesus, the Lydian,
in the plenitude of the latter's power, and how he warned him
against vainglory and self-confidence, forms one of the most de-
lightful narratives in Herodotus. There are grave difficulties
(partly chronological) in the way of accepting this story too liter-
ally, but it is so pointedly and admirably told that it has deserv-
edly become one of the most famous stories of antiquity.
When all these conquests had been added to the Lydian
empire, and the prosperity of Sardis was now at its height,
there came thither [to see Croesus], one after another, all the
sages of Greece living at the time, and among them Solon
the Athenian.
Croesus received him as his guest and lodged him in the
royal palace. On the third or fourth day after, he bade his
servants conduct Solon over his treasuries, and show him
all their greatness and magnificence.* When he had seen
them all, and, so far as time allowed, inspected them, Croesus
addressed this question, to him : " Stranger of Athens, we
have heard much of thy wisdom and of thy travels through
many lands, from love of knowledge and a wish to see the
world. I am curious therefore to inquire of thee, whom, of
112 EARLY CENTURIES OP HISTORIC GREECE
all men that thou hast seen, thou deemest the most happy."
This he asked because he thought himself the happiest of
mortals : but Solon answered him without flattery, accord-
ing to his true sentiments, "Tellus of Athens, sire."
The Story of Tellus of Athens
Full of astonishment at what he heard, Croesus demanded
sharply, "And wherefore dost thou deem Tellus happi-
est?" To which the other replied: "First, because his
country was flourishing in his days, and he himself had
sons both beautiful and good, and he lived to see children
born to each of them, and these children all grew up ; and
further because, after a life spent in what our people look
upon as comfort his end was surpassingly glorious. In a
battle between the Athenians and their neighbors near
Eleusis, he came to the assistance of his countrymen, routed
the foe, and died upon the field most gallantly. The Athe-
nians gave him a public funeral on the spot where he fell,
and paid him the highest honors."
Thus did Solon admonish Croesus by the example of
Tellus, enumerating the manifold particulars of his happi-
ness. When he had ended, Croesus inquired a second time,
who after Tellus seemed to him the happiest, expecting
that, at any rate, he would be given the second place.
TJie Story of Cleobis and Bito
"Cleobis and Bito," Solon answered: "They were of
Argive race ; their fortune was enough for their wants, and
they were besides endowed with so much bodily strength
that they had both gained prizes at the Games. Also this
tale is told of them : There was a great festival in honor
of the goddess Hera at Argos, to which their mother must
needs be taken in a car. Now the oxen did not come home
from the field in time : so the youths, fearful of being too
SOLON AND CROESUS 113
late, put the yoke on their own necks, and themselves drew
the car in which their mother rode. Five and forty fur-
longs did they draw her, and stopped before the temple.
This deed of theirs was witnessed by the whole assembly
of worshipers, and then their life closed in the best possible
way. Herein, too, God showed forth most evidently, how
much better a thing for man death is than life. For the
Argive men who stood around the car extolled the vast
strength of the youths ; and the Argive women extolled the
mother who was blest with such a pair of sons; and the
mother herself, overjoyed at the deed and at the praises it
had won, standing straight before the image, besought the
goddess to bestow on Cleobis and Bito, the sons who had so
mightily honored her, the highest blessing to which mortals
can attain. Her prayer ended, they offered sacrifice and
partook of the holy banquet, after which the two youths
fell asleep in the temple. They never woke more, but so
passed from the earth. The Argives, looking on them as
among the best of men, caused statues of them to be made,
which they gave to the shrine at Delphi."
Solon's Opinion touching Crcesits
When Solon had thus assigned these youths the second
place, Croesus broke in angrily, " What, stranger of Athens,
is my happiness so utterly set at naught by thee, that thou
dost not even put me on a level with private men ? "
" Croesus," replied the other, " thou askedst a question
concerning the condition of man, of one who knows that the
power above us is full of jealousy, and fond of troubling
our lot. A long life gives one to witness much, and experi-
ence much oneself, that one would not choose. For thyself,
Croesus, I see that thou art wonderfully rich, and art the
lord of many nations; but with respect to that whereon
thou questionest me, I have no answer to give, until I hear
that thou hast closed thy life happily. For assuredly he
114 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
who possesses great store of riches is no nearer happiness
than he who has what suffices for his daily needs, unless
it so hap that luck attend upon him, and so he continue in
the enjoyment of all his good things to the end of life. For
many of the wealthiest men have been unfavored of for-
tune, and many whose means were moderate have had ex-
cellent luck. The wealthy man is better able to content his
desires, and to bear up against a sudden buffet of calamity.
The other has less ability to withstand these evils (from
which, however, his good luck keeps him clear), but he en-
joys all these following blessings : he is whole of limb, a
stranger to disease, free from misfortune, happy in his
children, and comely to look upon. If, in addition to all
this, he end his life well, he is of a truth the man of whom
thou art in search, the man who may rightly be termed
happy. Call him, however, until he die, not happy but
fortunate. No single human being is complete in, every
respect something is always lacking. He who unites the
greatest number of advantages, and retaining them to the
day of his death, then dies peaceably, that man alone, sire,
is, in my judgment, entitled to bear the name of ' happy/
But in every matter it behooves us to mark well the end :
for oftentimes G-od gives men a gleam of happiness and
then plunges them into ruin."
Such was the speech which Solon addressed to Croesus, a
speech which brought him neither largess nor honor. The
king saw him depart with much indifference, since he
thought that a man must be an arrant fool who made no
account of present good, but bade men always wait and
mark the end.
52. THE EING OF POLYCBATBS
Herodotus, book in, chaps. 39-43
Polycrates of Samos was a famous pirate prince (about 530 to
522 B.C.), whose galleys raided -and terrorized the whole of thq
525 B.C.] THE RING OF POLYCRATES 115
Eastern Mediterranean. The famous story here given was doubt-
less designed by Herodotus to illustrate how (1) too much good
fortune is sure to breed ill fortune (a favorite theory at the time he
wrote), and (2) how vain it is for mortals to try to thwart the
purposes of Fate.
... At the outset lie divided the state into three parts, and
shared the kingdom with, his brothers, Pantagndtus and
Syloson ; but later, having killed the former and banished
the latter, who was the younger of the two, he held the
whole island. Hereupon he made a contract of friendship
with Amasis, the Egyptian king, sending him gifts, and
receiving from him others in return. In a little while his
power so greatly increased, that the fame of it went abroad
throughout Ionia, and the rest of Greece. Wherever he
turned his arms, success waited on him. He had a fleet of
a hundred penteconters, and bowmen to the number of a
thousand. Herewith he plundered all, without distinction
of friend or foe ; for he argued that a friend was better
pleased if you gave him back what you had taken from him,
than if you spared him at the first. He captured many of
the islands, and several towns upon the mainland. Among
his other doings he overcame the Lesbians in a sea fight,
when they came with all their forces to the help of Miletus,
and made a number of them prisoners. These persons,
laden with fetters, dug the moat which surrounds the castle
at Samos.
The exceeding good fortune of Polycrates did not escape
the notice of Amasis, who was much disturbed thereat.
When therefore his successes continued increasing, Amasis
wrote him the following letter, and sent it to Samos. " Am-
asis to Polycrates thus sayeth : It is a pleasure to hear of a
friend and ally prospering; but thy exceeding prosperity
does not cause me joy, forasmuch as I know that the gods
are envious. My wish for myself, and for those I love, is
to be now successful, and now to meet with a check ; thus
116 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
passing through life amid alternate good and ill, rather than
with perpetual good fortune. For never yet did I hear tell
of any one succeeding in all his undertakings who did not
meet with calamity at last and come to utter ruin. Now,
therefore, give ear to my words, and meet thy good luck in
this way : bethink thee which of all thy treasures thou
valuest most and canst least bear to part with; take it,
whatsoeyer it be, and throw it away, so that it may be sure
never to come any more into the sight of man. Then, if
thy good fortune be not thenceforth checkered with ill,
save thyself from harm by again doing as I have counseled."
When Polycrates read this letter, and perceived that the
advice of Amasis was good, he considered carefully with
himself which of the treasures that he had in store it would
grieve him most to lose. After much thought he made up
his mind that it was a signet ring which he was wont to
wear, an emerald set in gold, the workmanship of Theodore,
son of Telecles, a Sarnian. So he determined to throw this
away ; and, manning a penteconter, he went on board, and
bade the sailors put out into the open sea. When he was
now a long way from the island, he took the ring from his
finger, and, in the sight of all those who were on board,
flung it into the deep. This done, he returned home, and
gave vent to his sorrow.
Now it happened five or six days afterwards that a fisher-
man caught a fish so large and beautiful, that he thought it
well deserved to be made a present of to the king. So he took
it with him to the gate of the palace, and said that he
wanted to see Polycrates. Then Polycrates allowed him to
come in ; and the fisherman gave him the fish with these
words following
"Sir King, when I took this prize, I thought I would not
carry it to market, though I am a poor man who live by my
trade. I said to myself, It is worthy of Polycrates and
his greatness ; and so I brought it here to give it to you."
514 B.C.] HARMODIUS AND ARISTOGEITON 117
This speech pleased the king, who thus spoke in reply :
" Thou didst right well, friend ; and I am doubly indebted,
both for the gift, and for the speech. Come now, and sup
with, me." So the fisherman went home, esteeming it a high
honor that he had been asked to sup with the. king.
Meanwhile the servants, on cutting open the fish, found the
signet of their master in its belly. No sooner did they see
it than they seized upon it, and hastening to Polycrates
with great joy, restored it to him, and told him in what way
it had been found. The king, who saw something providen-
tial in the matter, forthwith wrote a letter to Amasis, telling
him all that had happened, what he had himself done, and
what had been the upshot and dispatched the letter to
Egypt.
When Amasis had read the letter of Polycrates, he per-
ceived that it does not belong to man to save his fellow
man from the fate which is in store for him ; likewise he felt
certain that Polycrates would end ill, as he prospered in
everything, even finding what he had thrown away. So he
sent a herald to Samos, and dissolved the contract of friend-
ship. This he did, that when the great and heavy misfor-
tune came, he might escape the grief which he would have
felt if the sufferer had been his bond friend.
[Not long after Polycrates was entrapped by his enemy, the
Persian satrap of Sardis, captured and put to a shameful death
thus meeting calamity, even as Amasis had dreaded.]
53. "EARMODIUS AND ARISTOGEITON," THE PATRIOTIC
SONG OF ATHENS
Translated in Felton's " Ancient and Modem Greece," vol. I, p. 371
The part of Harmodius and Aristogeiton in securing the liberty
of Athens was exceedingly exaggerated, as Thucydides pointed out
scarcely a century after their deed. Hipparchus, whom they slew
(514 B.C.), was not really the dominant tyrant; and his brother
118 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
Hippias was left unscathed. But the democracy of Athens de-
manded heroes, and these conspirators and martyrs to the cause
of liberty were long celebrated. The song here given was a drink-
ing song, and has probably been trolled thousands of times while
the wine went around and " patriotism " was abundant a.nd noisy.
The verses have a swinging lilt, and come as nearly as anything
we have to being the u National Hymn " of Athens.
Wreathed in myrtle be my glave
Wreathed like yours, stout hearts ! when ye
Death to the usurper gave
And to Athens liberty !
Dearest youths ! ye are not dead
But in islands of the blest
With Tydean Diomed,
With the swift Achilles rest.
Yes, with wreaths like yours Pll twine,
Wreaths like yours ye tried and true!
When at chaste Athene's shrine
Ye the base Hipparchus slew.
Bright your deeds beyond the grave !
Endless your renown, for ye
Death to the usurper gave
And to Athens liberty !
54 THE ANCIENT CONSTITUTION OP ATHENS
Aristotle, "Constitution of Athens," chap. 3 ff. Kenyon's Translation
The annual archonship in Athens began about 683 B.C., and
from this time Attica can be considered to have enjoyed at least
the simulacrum of a "free" government. But it was very far
from being a democracy. The system according to the excellent
authority of Aristotle which prevailed down to Draco's time,
about 621 B.C., is as here stated.
650 B.C.] CONSTITUTION OF ATHENS 119
Now the ancient constitution, as it existed before the time
of Draco, was organized as follows : The magistrates were
elected according to qualifications of birth and wealth. At
first they governed for life, but subsequently for terms of
ten years. The first magistrates, both in date and in im-
portance, were the King, the Polemareh (commander in war),
and the Archon. The earliest of these offices was that of
the King, which existed from ancestral antiquity. To this
was added, secondly, the office of Polemarch, on account of
some of the Kings proving feeble in war ; for which reason
Ion 1 was invited to accept the post on an occasion of press-
ing need. The last of the three offices was that of the
Archon, which most authorities state to have come into ex-
istence in the time of Medon. Others assign it to the time
of Acastus, and adduce as proof the fact that the nine
Archons swear to execute their oaths " as in the days of
Acastus," which seems to suggest that it was in his reign
that the descendants of Codrus retired from the king-
ship in return for the prerogatives conferred upon the
Archon.
Whichever way it be, the difference in date is small ; but
that it was the last of these magistracies to be created is
shown by the fact that the Archon has no part in the an-
cestral sacrifices, as the King and the Polemarch have, but
only in those of later origin. So it is only at a compara-
tively late date that the office of Archon has become of
great importance, by successive accretions of power. The
Thesmoth6tae 2 were appointed many years afterwards: when
these offices had already become annual ; and the object of
their Creation was that they might publicly record all legal
decisions, and act as. guardians of them with a view to ex-
ecuting judgment upon transgressors of the law. Accord-
1 Ion was said to have come to the assistance of his grandfather Erech-
theus when the latter was engaged in war with Eumolpus of Eleusis.
2 The six junior archons.
120 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
ingly their office, alone of those which have been mentioned^
was never of more than annual duration.
So far, then, do these magistracies precede all others in
point of date. At that time the nine Archons did not all
live together. The King occupied the building now known
as the Bucolium, near the Prytaneuni, as may be seen from
the fact that even to the present day the marriage of the
King's wife to Dionysus 1 takes place there. The Archon
lived in the Prytaneum, the Polemarch in the EpilycSum.
The latter building was formerly called the Polemarcheum,
but after Epilycus, during his term of office as Polemarch,
had rebuilt it and fitted it up, it was called the Epilyceum.
The Thesmothetse occupied the ThesmothetSum. In the
time of Solon, however, they all came together into the
ThesmothetSum. They had power to decide cases finally
on their own authority, not, as now, merely to hold a pre-
liminary hearing.
The Council of Areopagus had as its constitutionally as-
signed duty the protection of the laws ; but in point of fact
it administered the greater and most important part of the
government of the state, and inflicted personal punishments
and fines summarily upon all who misbehaved themselves.
This was the natural consequence of the fact that the Archons
were elected under qualifications of birth and wealth, and
that the Areopagus was composed of those who had served
as Archons ; for which latter reason the membership of the
Areopagus is the only office which has continued to be a
life magistracy to the present day.
55. THE REFORMS OF CLISTHENES
Aristotle, "Constitution of Athens," chaps. 21-22
Olisthenes's great legislative reforms did not perhaps get into
real effect until 507 B.O. Their results were immediate and bene-
1 The wife of the king-archon every year went through the ceremony of
marriage to the god Dionysus, at the feast of the Anthesteria.
507 B.C.] THE REFORMS OF CLISTHENES 121
ficial. Thanks to the harmony and efficiency which they infused
into the Athenian body politic, Athens was able to play her
noble part at Marathon and Salamis.
The people, therefore, had good reason to place confidence
in Clisthenes. Accordingly when, at this time, he found
himself at the head of the masses, three years after the ex-
pulsion of the tyrants, in the archonship of Isagoras 1 his
first step was to distribute the whole population into ten
tribes in place of the existing four, with the object of inter-
mingling the members of the different tribes, so that more
persons might have a share in the franchise. 2 From this
arose the saying "Do not look at the tribes," addressed
to those who wished to scrutinize the lists of the old*
families. Next he made the Council to consist of five
hundred members instead of four hundred, each tribe
now contributing fifty, whereas formerly each had sent a
hundred.
The reason why he did not organize the people into twelve
tribes was that he might not have to divide them according
to the already existing Trittyes ; for the four tribes had
twelve Trittyes, so that he would not have achieved his ob-
ject of redistributing the population in fresh combinations.
Further, he divided the country by denies 3 into thirty parts,
ten from the districts about the city, ten from the coast, and
ten from the interior. These he called Trittyes; and he
i 608 B.C.
2 He introduced a large number of new citizens by the enfranchisement
of emancipated slaves and resident aliens. It would have been difficult to
introduce them into the old tribes, which were organized into clans and
families on the old aristocratic basis ; the new tribes had no such associa-
tions.
8 The number of demes, from Herodotus, appears to have been a hun-
dred. This number increased with the population, and in the third century
B.C. there were 176 demes. The demes composing each Trittys were con-
tiguous, but each Trittys was separated from its two fellows, so that the
party feeling of the tribe was spread over three local divisions, and the old
feuds between the different districts of Attica became impossible.
122 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
assigned three of them by lot to each tribe, in such a way
that each should have one portion in each of these three
divisions.
The Organization of the Demes
All who lived in any given deme he declared fellow-
demesmen, to the end that the new citizens might not be
exposed by the habitual use of family names, but that men
might be known by the names of their denies ; and accord-
ingly it is by the names of their denies l that the Athenians
still speak of one another. He also instituted demarchs,
who had the same duties as the previously existing naucrari,
the denies being made to take the place of the naucraries.
He gave names to the denies, some from the localities to
which they belonged, some from the persons who founded
them, since some of them no longer corresponded to locali-
ties possessing names. On the other hand, he allowed every-
one to retain his family and clan and religious rites according
to ancestral custom. 2 The names given to the tribes were
the ten which the Pythia appointed out of the hundred
selected national heroes.
By these reforms the constitution became much more
democratic than that of Solon. The laws of Solon had been
obliterated by disuse during the period of the tyranny, and
new ones had been drawn up in their place by Clisthenes
with the object of securing the goodwill of the masses.
1 By this device those whose fathers had been slaves or aliens would not
be obliged to betray their origin by giving their father's name. But in
later times the name of the father as well as of the deme was officially
given.
2 Thus the ancient divisions were maintained for the benefit of the older
families, but they ceased to be part of the regular organization of the com*
munity for political purposes.
487 B.C.] THE REFORMS OF CLISTHENES 123
Among these was the law concerning ostracism. Pour years a
after the establishment of this system, in the archonship of
Hermocreon, they first imposed upon the Council of l?ive
Hundred the oath which they take to the present day.
Next they began to elect the generals according to tribes,
one from each tribe, while the Polemarch was the commander
of the whole army. Then, eleven years later, they won the
vict9ry of Marathon, in the archonship of Phaenippus ; and
two years after this victory, when the people had now
gained self-confidence, they for the first time made use of
the law of ostracism. This was originally passed as a pre-
caution against men in high office, because Pisistratus took
advantage of his position as a popular leader and general
to make himself tyrant; and the first person ostracized was
one of his relatives, Hipparchus, son of Charmus, of the
deme of Collytus, the very person on whose account espe-
cially Clisthenes had passed the law, as he wished to get rid
of him. Hitherto, however, he had escaped ; for the Athe-
nians, with the usual leniency of the democracy, allowed all
the partisans of the tyrants, who had not joined in their
evil deeds in the time of the troubles, to remain in the city 5
and the chief and leader of these was Hipparchus. Then
in the very next year, in the archonship of Telesinus [487
B.C.] they for the first time since the tyranny elected, tribe
by tribe, the nine Archons by lot out of the five hundred
candidates selected by the demes, all the earlier ones having
been elected by vote ; and in the same year Megacles, son
of Hippocrates, of the deme of AlopScS, was ostracized.
Thus for three years they continued to ostracize the friends
of the tyrants, on whose account the law had been passed ;
but in the following year they began to remove others as
1 This, if correct, would place this event in 504 B.C. But as this year be-
longs to .another archon, and ad the battle of Marathon was fought in 490
(eleven years later), the archonship of Hermocreon should be assigned to
501 B.C., for which year no name occurs in the extant list of archons.
124 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
well, including any one who seemed to be more powerful
than was expedient. The first person unconnected with the
tyrants who was ostracized was Xanthippus^son of Ariphron.
56. How ATHENS WAS GIVEN A DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZA-
TION BY CLISTHENES, AND TRIUMPHED OVER HER
NEIGHBORS
Herodotus, book V, chaps. 66-77. Rawlinson's Translation
The expulsion of the Pisistratidse (510 B.C.) was followed by a
great burst of public spirit in Athens, of which the democratic re-
form of Clisthenes was one fruitage ; another was the military
activity that resulted in a bold and successful confronting of
Sparta, and notable victories over the Boeotians and Chalcidians.
Athens had been a weak military power in the days of the quarrels
of the lower classes with the Eupatrtdse. Now, thanks to the
enkindling influence of freedom and of free institutions, she rapidly
grows in aggressive strength.
Embedded in the story here given by Herodotus is also the story
of the conspiracy of Cylon (about 630 B.C.), who had attempted to
become tyrant two generations before Pisistratus.
The power of Athens had been great before ; but, now
that the tyrants were gone, it became greater than ever.
The chief authority was lodged with two persons, Clisthenes,
of the family of the Alcmseonids, who is said to have been
the persuader of the Pythoness, and Isagoras, the son of
Tisander, who belonged to a noble house, but whose
pedigree I am not able to trace further. Howbeit his kins-
men offer sacrifice to the Carian Zeus. These two men
strove together for the mastery; and Clisthenes, finding
himgelf the weaker, called to his aid the common people.
Hereupon, instead of the four tribes among which the
Athenians had been divided hitherto, Clisthenes made ten
tribes, and parceled out the Athenians among them. He
i Father of Pericles.
508-507 B.C.] ATHENS TRIUMPHANT 125
likewise changed the names of the tribes ; for whereas the}
had till now been called after Geleon, JEgicores, Argades,
and Hoples, the four sons of Ion, Clisthenes set these names
aside, and called his tribes after certain other heroes, all of
whom were native, except Ajax. Ajax was associated
because, although a foreigner, he was a neighbor and an
ally of Athens.
Having brought entirely over to his own side the common
people of Athens, whom he had before disdained, he gave all
the tribes new names, and made the number greater than
formerly ; instead of the four phylarchs he established ten ;
he likewise placed ten demes in each of the tribes ; and he
was, now that the common people took his part, very much
more powerful than his adversaries.
Isagoras in his turn lost ground ; and therefore, to counter-
plot his enemy, he called in Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian
who had already, at a time when he was besieging the
Pisistratidae, made a contract of friendship with him. A
charge is even brought against Cleomenes that he was on
terms of too great familiarity with Isagoras's wife. At
this time the first thing that he did was to send a herald
and require that Clisthenes, and a large number of Athenians
besides, whom he called "The Accursed/' should leave
Athens. This message he sent at the suggestion of Isagoras :
for in the affair referred to, the blood guiltiness lay on the
Alcrnseonidse and their partisans, while he and his friends
were quite clear of it.
The Story of Oylon
The way in which " The Accursed" at Athens got their
name, was the following. There was a certain Athenian
called Cylon, a victor at the Olympic games, who aspired
to the sovereignty, and aided by a number of his compan-
ions, who were of the same age with himself, made an
attempt to seize the citadel. But the attack failed ; and
126 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
Cylon became a suppliant at the image. Hereupon the
Heads of the Naucraries, who at that time bore rule in
Athens, induced the fugitives to remove by a promise to
spare their lives. Nevertheless, they were all slain ; and the
blame was laid on the Alcmseonidse. All this happened
before the time of Pisistratus.
The Futile Intervention of Oleomenes
When the message of Cleomenes arrived, requiring Clis-
thenes and " The Accursed " to quit the city, Clisthenes
departed of his own accord. . Cleomenes, however, notwith-
standing his departure, came to Athens, with a small band
of followers; and on his arrival sent into banishment seven
hundred Athenian families, which were pointed out to him
by Isagoras. Succeeding here, he next endeavored to
dissolve the council, and to put the government into the
hands of three hundred of the partisans of that leader. But
the council resisted, and refused to obey his orders ; where-
upon Cleomenes, Isagoras, and their followers took possession
of the citadel. Here they were attacked by the rest of the
Athenians, who took the side of the council, and were
besieged for the space of two days : on the third day they
accepted terms, being allowed at least such of them as
were Lacedaemonians to quit the country. And so the
word which came to Cleomenes received its fulfillment. For
when he first went up into the citadel, meaning to seize it,
just as he was entering the sanctuary of the goddess,
in order to question her, the priestess arose from her
throne, before he had passed the doors, and said
" Stranger from Lacedeemon, depart hence, and presume
not to enter the holy place it is not lawful for a Dorian
to set foot there." But he answered, Oh ! woman, I am
not a Dorian, but an Achaean." 1 Slighting this warning,
1 The Heraclidae were, according to the unanimous tradition, the old
royal family of the Peloponnesus.
407-406 B.C.] ATHENS TRIUMPHANT 127
Cleomenes made his attempt, and so he was forced to re-
tire, together with his Lacedaemonians. 1 The others were
cast into prison by the Athenians, and condemned to die,
among them Tirnasitheiis the Delphian, of whose prowess
and courage I have great things which I could tell.
So these men died in prison. The Athenians directly
afterwards recalled Clisthenes, and the seven hundred
families which Cleomenes had driven out; and, further,
they sent envoys to Sardis, to make an alliance with the
Persians, for they knew that war would follow with Cleom-
enes and the Lacedaemonians. When the ambassadors
reached Sardis and delivered their message, Artaphernes,
son of Hystaspes, who was at that time governor of the
place, inquired of them " who they were, and in what part
of the world they dwelt, that they wanted to become allies
of the Persians ? " The messenger told him ; upon which
he answered them shortly that " if the Athenians chose to
give earth and water 2 to King Darius, he would conclude an
alliance with them ; but if not, they might go home again."
After consulting together, the envoys, anxious to form the
alliance, accepted the terms ; but on their return to Athens,
they fell into deep disgrace on account of their compliance.
Cleomenes turned lack, and the Boeotians and .Chalcideans
defeated
Meanwhile Cleomenes, who considered himself to have
been insulted by the Athenians both in word and deed, was
drawing a force together from all parts of the Peloponnesus,
without informing any one of his object ; which was to re-
venge himself on the Athenians, and to establish Isagoras,
who had escaped with him from the citadel, 8 as despot of
Athens. Accordingly, with a large army, he invaded the
1 The Athenians always cherished a lively recollection of this triumph
over their great rivals.
* Symbols of submission. * Disguised, probably as a Spartan.
128 EARLY CENTURIES OF HISTORIC GREECE
district of Eleusis, 1 while the Boeotians, who had concerted
measures with him, took OBnoS and Hysias, 2 two country
towns upon the frontier ; and at the same time the Chalcid-
eans, 3 on another side, plundered divers places in. Attica.
The Athenians, notwithstanding that danger threatened
them from every quarter, put off all thought of the Boeotians
and Chalcideans till a future time, and marched against the
Peloponnesians, who were at Eleusis.
As the two hosts were about to engage, first of all the
Corinthians, bethinking themselves that they were perpetrat-
ing a wrong, changed their minds, and drew off from the
main army. Then Demaratus, son of Ariston, who was
himself king of Sparta and joint leader of the expedition,
and who till now had had no sort of quarrel with Cleomenes,
followed their example. On account of this rupture be-
tween the kings, a law was passed at Sparta, forbidding
both inonarchs to go out together with the army, as had
been the custom hitherto. The law also provided, that, as
one of the kings was to be left behind, one of the Tyndaridse
should also remain at home ; whereas hitherto both had ac-
companied the expeditions, as auxiliaries. So when the rest
of the allies saw that the Lacedaemonian kings were not of
one mind, and that the Corinthian troops had quitted their
host, they likewise drew off and departed.
So when the Spartan army had broken up from its quarters
thus ingloriously, the Athenians, wishing to revenge them-
selves, marched first against the Chalcideans. The Boeotians,
however, advancing to the aid of the latter as far as the
Euripus, the Athenians thought it best to attack them first.
A battle was fought accordingly ; and the Athenians gained
a very complete victory, killing a vast number of the enemy,
1 Eleusis was the key to Attica on the south.
2 Hysia lay on the north side of Cithseron, in the plain of the Asopus.
3 Ohalcis had been one of the most important cities in Greece. It was
said to have been originally a colony from Athens.
506 B.C.] ATHENS TRIUMPHANT 129
and taking seven hundred of them alive. After this, on the
very same day, they crossed into Eubcea, and engaged the
Chalcideans with the like success ; whereupon they left four
thousand settlers upon the lands of the Hippobotae, which
is the name the Chalcideans give to their rich men. All the
Chalcidean prisoners whom they took were put in irons, and
kept for a long time in close confinement, as likewise were
the Boeotians, until the ransom asked for them was paid ;
and this the Athenians fixed at two minse the man. The
chains wherewith they were fettered the Athenians sus-
pended in their citadel ; where they were still to be seen in
my day, hanging against the wall scorched by the Median
flames, opposite the chapel which faces the west. The
Athenians made an offering of the tenth part of the ransom-
money : and expended it on the brazen chariot drawn by
four steeds, which stands on the left hand immediately
that one enters the gateway of the citadel. The inscription
runs as follows :
"When Chalcis and Bceotia dared her might,
Athens subdued their pride in valorous fight ;
Gave bonds for insults ; and, the ransom paid,
From the full tenths these steeds for Pallas made."
Thus did the Athenians increase in strength, And it is
plain enough, not from this instance only, but from many
everywhere, that freedom is an excellent thing; since even
the Athenians, who, while they continued under the rule of
tyrants, were not a whit more valiant than any of their
neighbors, no sooner shook off the yoke than they became
decidedly the first of all. These things show that, while
undergoing oppression, they let themselves be beaten, since
then they worked for a master; but so soon as they got their
freedom, each man was eager to do the best he could for
himself. So fared it now with the Athenians.
CHAPTER VI
THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
In the last part of the sixth and the first two decades of the
fifth centuries B.O. came the Persian attack upon Greece. It is
needless to expatiate upon the importance of this struggle. If
Darius and Xerxes had prevailed, the history of civilization in
Europe would have been so altered that imagination fails to give
any conception of what might have followed. The Persians would
not indeed have exterminated their Hellenic subjects ; life under a
satrap, sent down from Susa, might have been even fairly toler-
able ; but the free spirit of Hellas would have been utterly crushed.
Above all, Athens would have been ruined just as her genius had
begun to flower. It is impossible to imagine a Sophocles weaving
his tragedies, a Phidias chiseling his sculptures, a Socrates going
up arid down the market place propounding his knotty questions,
and kindling the mind of young Plato, while a garrison of Persian
intruders held the Athenian acropolis and lorded it over the natives
as over so many " slaves of the Great King."
Not merely was the life and liberty of Greece at stake in these
wars, but there was no inherent reason why, after conquering the
Hellenes, the Persians could not have carried their insatiable arms
across to Italy, and subjugated infant Borne, also. Not Charles
Martel at Tours, not Howard and Drake when they defeated the
Spanish Armada, won victories more pregnant for universal history
than Miltiades at Marathon, and Themistocles at Salamis.
It is the good fortune of this war, that its story is told by the
delightful "Father of History," Herodotus ; and his narratives
usually require very limited introduction or comment. They may
be read with pleasure by any one with red blood truly in his veins.
They lack the critical accuracy of the monograph of a modern ped-
ant ; perhaps occasionally they are biased ; but they seem very
130
499 B.C.] ARISTAGORAS AT SPARTA 131
often to have been based on personal conversations with partici-
pants in the great debate: old veterans fighting their battles
over again for the benefit of the keen young traveler from Hali-
carnassus. AH the extracts here given, covering most of the lead-
ing points in the great wars, are from Herodotus, save a single
excerpt from the later but fairly authoritative " Life of Aristides,"
by Plutarch.
* 57. ARISTAGORAS AT SPARTA
Herodotus, book V, chaps. 49-51
Aristagoras having induced the Ionian Greeks to revolt against
Persia (499 B.C.), next undertook the difficult task of getting effec-
tive help from Greece proper. How the conservative Spartans
refused to dip in any such distant enterprise is told as follows.
Cleomenes, however, was still king when Aristagoras, ty-
rant of Miletus, reached Sparta. At their interview, Aris-
tagoras, according to the report of the Lacedaemonians,
produced a bronze tablet, whereupon the whole circuit of
the earth was engraved, 1 with, all its seas and rivers. Dis-
course began between the two; and Aristagoras addressed
the Spartan king in these words following: "Think it
not strange, King Cleomenes, that I have been at the pains
to sail hither ; for the posture of affairs, which I will now
recount unto thee, made it fitting. Shame and grief is it
indeed to none so much as to us, that the sons of the loni-
ans should have lost their freedom, and come to be the
slaves of others ; but yet it touches you likewise, Spar-
tans, beyond the rest of the Greeks, inasmuch as the pre-
eminence over all Greece appertains to you. We beseech
you, therefore, by the common gods of the Grecians, deliver
the lonians, who are your own kinsmen, from slavery.
Truly the task is not difficult; for the barbarians are an
unwarlike people; and you are the best and bravest war-
1 This is almost our first record of a map. It was manifestly a great
novelty in Sparta. In Ionia, with its large commercial activities, they
may have been introduced somewhat earlier.
132 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
riors in the whole world. Their mode of fighting is the
following: they use bows and arrows, and a short spear;
they wear trousers in the field, and cover their heads with
turbans. So easy are they to vanquish ! Know, too, that
the dwellers in these parts have more good things than all
the rest of the world put together, gold, and silver, and
brass, and embroidered garments, beasts of burden, and
bond servants, all which, if you only wish it, you may
soon have for your own. The nations border on one another,
in the order which I will now explain.
" Next to these lonians," (here he pointed with his finger
to the map of the world which was engraved upon the tab-
let that he had brought with him) " these Lydians dwell ;
their soil is fertile, and few people are so rich in silver.
Next to them," he continued, " come these Phrygians, who
have more flocks and herds than any race that I know, and
more plentiful harvests. On them border the Cappadocians,
whom we Greeks know by the name of Syrians ; they are
neighbors to the Cilicians, who extend all the way to this sea,
where Cyprus (the island which you see here) lies. The
Cilicians pay the king a yearly tribute of five hundred talents.
" Next to them come the Armenians, who live here and
they too have numerous flocks and herds. After them
come the Mati^ni, inhabiting this country; then Cissia,
this province, where you see the river Choaspes marked,
and likewise the town Susa upon its banks, where the Great
King holds his court, and where the treasuries are in which
his wealth is stored. Once masters of this city, you may
be bold to vie with Zeus himself for riches. In the wars
which you wage with your rivals of Messenia, with them
of Argos, likewise, and of Arcadia, about paltry boundaries,
and strips of land not so remarkably good, ye contend with
those who have no gold, nor silver even, which often give
men heart to fight and die. Must ye wage such wars, and
when ye might so easily be lords of Asia, will ye decide
499 B.C.] ARISTAGORAS AT SPARTA 133
otherwise ? " Thus spoke Aristagoras ; and Cleomenes re-
plied to him, " Milesian stranger, three days hence I will
give thee an answer."
So they proceeded no further at that time. When, how-
ever, the day appointed for the answer came, and the two
once more met, Cleomenes asked Aristagoras, " how many
days' journey it was from the sea of the lonians to the
king's residence ? " Hereupon Aristagoras, who had
managed the rest so cleverly, and succeeded in deceiving
the king, tripped in his speech and blundered ; for instead
of concealing the truth, as he ought to have done if he
wanted to induce the Spartans to cross into Asia, he said
plainly that it was a journey of three months. Cleomenes
caught at the words, and, preventing Aristagoras from finish-
ing what he had begun to say concerning the road, addressed
him thus: "Milesian stranger, quit Sparta before sunset.
This is no good proposal which thou makest to the Lacedae-
monians, to conduct them a distance of three months* journey
from the sea." When he had thus spoken, Cleomenes went
to his home.
But Aristagoras took an olive bough in his hand, 1 and
hastened to the king's house, where he was admitted,
by reason of his suppliant's guise. Gorgo, the daughter
of Cleomenes, and his only child, a girl of about eight or
nine years of age, happened to be there, standing by her
father's side. Aristagoras, seeing her, requested Cleomenes
to send her out of the room before he began to speak with
him ; but Cleomenes told him to say on, and not mind the
child. So Aristagoras began with a promise of ten talents
if the king would grant him his request, and when Cleom-
enes shook his head, continued to raise his offer till it
reached fifty talents ; whereupon the child spoke : " Father,"
she said, "get up and go, or the stranger will certainly
corrupt thee." Then Cleomenes, pleased at the warning of
1 TIie regular token of a suppliant.
134 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
his child, withdrew and went into another room. Aristagoras
quitted Sparta for good, not being able to discourse any
more concerning the road which led up to the king.
58. ARISTAGORAS AT ATHENS AND WHAT CAME OF IT
Herodotus, book V, chaps. 97, 99-103
At Athens and at Eretria, Aristagoras had somewhat better suc-
cess, although the forces sent back with him were so feeble they
served only to irritate the Persians, not to help the cause of Ionian
liberty.
The Athenians had come to this decision, and were already
in bad odor with the Persians, when Aristagoras the Mile-
sian, dismissed from Sparta by Cleomenes the Lacedaemo-
nian, arrived at Athens. He knew that, after Sparta, Athens
was the most powerful of the Grecian states. Accordingly
he appeared before the people, and, as he had done at
Sparta, spoke to them of the good things which there were
in Asia, and of the Persian mode of fight how they used
neither spear nor shield, and were very easy to conquer.
All this he urged, and reminded them also that Miletus was
a colony from Athens, and therefore ought to receive their
succor, since they were so powerful and in the earnest-
ness of his entreaties he cared little what he promised
till, at the last, he prevailed and won them over. It seems
indeed to be easier to deceive a multitude than one man
for Aristagoras, though he failed to impose on Cleomenes
the Lacedaemonian, succeeded with the Athenians, who were
30,000. Won by his persuasions, they voted that twenty
ships should be sent to the aid of the Ionian s, under the
command of Melanthius, one of the citizens, a man of mark
in every way. .These ships were the beginning of woes both to
the Greeks and to the barbarians. 1
1 Herodotus seems to have inserted these words 'with solemn purpose,
as a kind of preliminary remark to the long warfare which he was to
narrate.
498 B.C.] ARISTAGORAS AT ATHENS 135
How the Athenians and lonians sacked Sardis
The Athenians now arrived with a fleet of twenty sail,
and brought also in their company five triremes of Eretrians;
which had joined the expedition, not so much out of good
will towards Athens, as to pay a debt which they already
owed to the people of Miletus. For in the old war between
the Chalcideans and Eretrians, the Milesians fought on the
Eretrian side throughout, while the Chalcideans had the
help of the Samian people. Aristagoras, on their arrival,
assembled the rest of his allies, and proceeded to attack
Sardis, not, however, leading the army in person, but appoint-
ing to the command his own brother Charopinus, and Her-
mophantus, one of the citizens, while he himself remained
behind in Miletus.
The lonians sailed with this fleet to Ephesus, and, leaving
their ships at Coressus in the Ephesian territory, took guides
from the city, and went up the country, with a great host.
They marched along the course of the river Cayster, and,
crossing over the ridge of Tm61us, came down upon Sardis
and took it, no man opposing them : the whole city fell
into their hands, except only the citadel, which Artaphernes
defended in person, having with him no contemptible force.
Though, however, they took the city, they did not succeed
in plundering it ; for, as the houses in Sardis were most of
them built of reeds, and even the few which were of brick
had a reed thatching for their roof, one of them was no
sooner fired by a soldier than the flames ran speedily from
house to house, and spread over the whole place. As the
fire raged, the Lydians, and such Persians as were in the
city, inclosed on every side by the flames, which had seized
all the skirts of the town, and finding themselves unable to
get out, came in crowds into the market place, and gathered
themselves upon the banks of the PactSlus. This stream
which conies down from Mount Tm61us, and brings the Sar-
136 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
dians a quantity of gold dust, runs directly through the
market place of Sardis, and joins the Hermus, before that
river reaches the sea. So the Lydians and Persians, brought
together in this way in the market place and about the
Pact61us, were forced to stand on their defense ; and the
lonians, when they saw the enemy in part resisting, and in
part pouring towards them in dense crowds, took fright, and,
drawing off to the ridge which is called Tmdlus, when night
came, went back to their ships.
The Disastrous Retreat from Sardis
Sardis, however, was burnt, and, among other buildings,
a temple of the native goddess Cyb16 was destroyed, 1 which
was the reason afterwards alleged by the Persians for set-
ting on fire the temples of the Greeks. As soon as what had
happened was known, all the Persians who were stationed
on this side the Halys drew together and brought help to
the Lydians. Finding, however, when they arrived that
the lonians had already withdrawn from Sardis, they set
off, and, following close upon their tracks, came up with,
them at Ephesus. The lonians drew out against them in
battle array ; and a fight ensued, wherein the Greeks had
very greatly the worse. Vast numbers were slain by the
Persians : amongst other men of note, they killed the captain
of the Eretrians, a certain Evalcidas, a man who had gained
crowns at the games, and received much praise from Simoni-
des the Cean. Such as made their escape from the battle
dispersed among the several cities.
So ended this encounter. Afterwards the Athenians
quite forsook the lonians, and, though Aristagoras besought
1 The burning of this temple as well as the general destruction of Sar-
dis was an act of great folly on the part of the lonians. It enraged the
Lydian population against them, so that instead of joining with them
against the Persians, they were willing to help the latter heartily to crush
the rebellion.
490 B.C.] THE PERSIANS AT MARATHON 137
them much by his ambassador, refused to give him any
further help. Still the lonians, notwithstanding this deser-
tion, continued unceasingly their preparations to carry on
the war against the Persian king, which their late conduct
towards him had rendered unavoidable.
[The lonians thus held out until 494 B.O. when, after being
beaten in a great naval battle off the isle of Lade, Miletus was
taken after a long siege and almost destroyed. The whole region
was speedily reduced to abject dependence upon Persia. Aris-
tagoras and Histiaeus, the authors of the mischief, perished miser-
ably.]
59. How THE PERSIANS CAME o?o MARATHON
Herodotus, book V, chaps. 102-106
The Persian armament of Datis and Artaphernes was con-
ducted to Marathon (490 B.C.) by old Hippias the ex-tyrant.
In their extremity .it was natural for the Athenians to appeal
to Sparta, the chief military power of Greece, and the head of
the " Peloponnesian League " whereof Athens at this time was
probably a member. It was equally natural for the Spartans to
procrastinate in an emergency, and to allege some old custom as
sufficient excuse.
The Persians, having thus brought Eretria into subjec-
tion after waiting a few days, made sail for Attica, greatly
straitening the Athenians as they approached, and thinking
to deal with them as they had dealt with the people of
Eretria. And, because there was no place in all Attica so
convenient for their horse as Marathon, and it lay, moreover,
quite close to Eretria, therefore Hippias, the son of Pisis-
tratus, conducted them thither.
When intelligence of this reached the Athenians, they
likewise marched their troops to Marathon, and there stood
on the defensive, having at their head ten generals, of whom
one was Miltiades.
138 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
And first, before they left the city, the generals sent off
to Sparta a herald, one Pheidippides, 1 who was by birth an
Athenian, and by profession and practice a trained runner.
This man, according to the account which he gave to the
Athenians on his return, when he was near Mount Parthe-
nium, above Tegea, fell in with the god Pan, who called him
by his name, and bade him ask the Athenians " wherefore
they neglected him so entirely, when he was kindly disposed
towards them, and had often helped them in times past, and
would do so again in time to come?" The Athenians,
entirely believing in the truth of this report, as soon as
their affairs were once more in good order, set up a temple
to Pan under the Acropolis, 2 and, in return for the message
which I have recorded, established in his honor yearly
sacrifices and a torch race.
On the occasion of which we speak, when Pheidippides
was sent by the Athenian generals, and, according to his
own account, saw Pan on his journey, he reached Sparta
on the very next day after quitting the city of Athens. 8
Upon his arrival he went before the rulers, and said to
them
"Men of Lacedaemon, the Athenians beseech you to
hasten to their aid, and not allow that state, which is the
most ancient in all Greece, to be enslaved by the barbarians.
Eretria, look you, is already carried away captive; and
Greece weakened by the loss of no mean city."
Thus did Pheidippides deliver the message committed
to him. And the Spartans wished to help the Athenians,
but were unable to give them any present succor, as they
did not like to break their established law. It was then
iSee Browning's poem " Pheidippides " in his "Dramatic Idylls."
2 The temple or rather chapel of Pan was contained in a hollow in the
rock just below the Propylsea, or entrance to the citadel. The cavern still
exists.
8 A marvelous but not incredible feat for a trained "distance runner."
He seems to have covered about 160 miles in 48 hours.
490 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF MARATHON 139
the ninth day of the first decade ; and they could not march
out of Sparta on the ninth, when the moon had not reached
the full. So they waited for the full of the moon.
60. THE BATTLE OF MARATHON
Herodotus, book VI, chaps. 108-120
Herodotus's story of the cattle of Marathon is substantially
the only complete one we have, and on the whole seems reasonably
correct, although not without decided difficulties. It is probable
that the deliberation whether or not to fight the invaders was
held before the Athenian army marched from Athens to Marathon,
rather than near the battlefield. Again, it is likely the part of
Callimachus is minimized to enhance the glory of Miltiades. As
for Miltiades's speech to Callimachus, it is the historian's sheer
creation, yet it represents what ought to have been said ; and is
historically true in spirit if not in fact.
It is needless to suggest the mighty issues that hung upon this
battle.
The Athenians were drawn up in order of battle in a
sacred close belonging to Heracles, when they were joined
by the Platseans, who came in full force to their aid.
The Athenian generals were divided in their opinions;
and some advised not to risk a battle, because they were
too few to engage such a host as that of the Hedes, 1 while
others were for fighting at once ; and among these last was
Miltiades. He therefore, seeing that opinions were thus di-
vided, and that the less worthy counsel appeared .likely
to prevail, resolved to go to the polemarch, and have a
conference with him. For the man on whom the lot fell
to be polemarch 2 at Athens was entitled to give his vote
with the ten generals, since anciently 8 the Athenians
allowed him an equal right of voting with them. The pole-
iThis is the term frequently used by the Greeks in reference to the
Persians. . . -
2 The polemarch, or war-archon, was the third archon in dignity.
* When Herodotus wrote, the polemarch had no military functions at all.
140 THE PERIL PROM PERSIA
march at this juncture was Callimachus of Aphidnae; to
him therefore Miltiades went, and said :
" "With thee it rests, Callimachus, either to bring Athens to
slavery, or, by securing her freedom, to leave behind thee
to all future generations a memory beyond even Harmodius
and Aristogeiton. For never since the time that the Athe-
nians became a people were they in so great a danger as now.
If they bow their necks beneath the yoke of the Medes, the
woes which they will have to suffer when given into the
power of Hippias are already determined on ; if, on the other
hand, they fight and overcome, Athens may rise to be the
very first city in Greece. How it comes to pass that these
things are likely to happen, and how the determining of
them in some sort rests with thee, I will now proceed to
make clear. We generals are ten in number, and our votes
are divided: half of us wish to engage, half to avoid a
combat. Now, if we do not fight, I look to see a great dis-
turbance at Athens which will shake men's resolutions,
and then I fear they will submit themselves; but if we
fight the battle before any un soundness show itself among
our citizens, let the gods but give us fair play, and we are
well able to overcome the enemy. On thee therefore we
depend in this matter, which lies wholly in thine own power.
Thou hast only to add thy vote to my side and thy country
will be free, and not free only, but the first state in Greece.
Or, if thou preferrest to give thy vote to them who would
decline the combat, then the reverse will f ollow."
Miltiades by these words gained Callimachus; and the
addition of the polemarch's vote caused the decision to be in
favor of fighting. Hereupon all those generals who had
been desirous of hazarding a battle, when their turn came to
command the army, gave up their right to Miltiades. He
however, though he accepted their offers, nevertheless waited,
and would not fight, until his own day of command arrived
in due course.
490 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF MARATHON 141
Then at length, when his own turn was come, the Athe-
nian battle was set in array, and this was the order of it.
Callimachus the polemarch led the right wing ; for it was
at that time a rule with the Athenians to give the right wing
to the polemarch. 1 After this followed the tribes, according
as they were numbered, in an unbroken line ; while last of
all came the Plataeans, forming the left wing. And ever
since that day it has been a custom with the Athenians, in
the sacrifices and assemblies held each fifth year at Athens, 2
for the Athenian herald to implore the blessing of the gods
on the Plataeans conjointly with the Athenians. Now, as
they marshaled the host upon the field of Marathon, in
order that the Athenian front might be of equal length with
the Median, the ranks of the center were diminished, and it
became the weakest part of the line, while the wings were
both made strong with a depth of many ranks.
The Battle is Joined
So when the battle was set in array, and the victims
showed themselves favorable, instantly the Athenians, so
soon as they were let go, charged the barbarians at a run.
Now the distance between the two armies was little short
of eight furlongs. 8 The Persians, therefore, when they saw
the Greeks coming on at speed, made ready to receive them,
although it seemed to them that the Athenians were bereft of
their senses, and bent upon their own destruction; for they
* The right wing was the special post of honor. The polemarch took
the post as representative of the king, whose position it had been in the
ancient times.
2 The Panathenaic festival is probably intended. It was held every
fifth year (i.e. once in every four years, halfway between the Olympic
festivals), and was the great religious assembly of the Athenians.
* This distance is a little less than a mile. The object of Miltiades in
putting his men on the run was to get them through the zone of the terrible
Persian arrow fire as soon as possible. Very likely the actual "running "
was confined to the last two hundred yards : the stadium-trained men of
Miltiades could do this even in armor.
142 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
saw a mere handful of men coming on at a run without
either horsemen or archers. Such, was the opinion of the
barbarians ; but the Athenians in close array fell upon them,
and fought in a manner worthy of being recorded. They
were the first of the Greeks, so far as I know, who intro-
duced the custom of charging the enemy at a run, and they
were likewise the first who dared to look upon the Median
garb, and to face men clad in that fashion. Until this time
the very name of the Medes had been a terror to the Greeks
to hear.
The two armies fought together on the plain of Marathon
for a length of time; and in the mid-battle, where the Per-
sians themselves and the Sacse had their place, the barbarians
were victorious, and broke and pursued the Greeks into the
inner country ; but on the two wings the Athenians and the
Platseans defeated the enemy. Having so done, they suffered
the routed barbarians to fly at their ease, and joining the
two wings in one, fell upon those who had broken their own
center, and fought and conquered them. These likewise fled,
and now the Athenians hung upon the runaways and cut them
down, chasing them all the way to the shore, on reaching
which they laid hold of the ships and called aloud for fire.
The Last Phase of the Battle
It was in the struggle here that Callimachus the pole-
march, after greatly distinguishing himself, lost his life;
Stesilatls too, the son of Thrasilaus, one of the generals, was
slain 5 and Cynaegirus, the son of Eupharion, having seized
on a vessel of the enemy's by the ornament at the stern, 1
had his hand cut off by the blow of an ax, and so perished;
as likewise did many other Athenians of note and name.
i The ornament at the stern consisted of wooden planks curved grace-
fully in continuation of the sweep by which the stern of the ancient ship
rose from the sea. Vessels were ordinarily ranged along a beach with their
sterns towards the shore, and thus were liable to be seized by the stem
ornament.
490 B.C.] THE BATTLE OP MARATHON 143
Nevertheless the Athenians secured in this way seven
of the vessels; while with the remainder the barbarians
pushed off, and taking aboard their Eretrian prisoners from
the island where they had left them, doubled Cape Sunium,
hoping to reach Athens before the return of the Athenians.
The Alcmseonidae were accused by their countrymen of sug-
gesting this course to them ; they had, it was said, an under-
standing with the Persians, and made a signal to them,
by raising a shield, after they were embarked in their
ships.
The Persians accordingly sailed round Sunium. But the
Athenians with all possible speed marched away to the
defense of their city, and succeeded in reaching Athens be-
fore the appearance of the barbarians : and as their camp at
Marathon had been pitched in a precinct of Heracles, so now
they encamped in another precinct of the same god at
Cynosarges. The barbarian fleet arrived, and lay to off
Phalerum, which was at that time the haven of Athens;
but after resting awhile upon their oars, they departed and
sailed away to Asia.
Various Details and Legends
There fell in this battle of Marathon, on the side of the
barbarians, about six thousand and four hundred men ; on
that of the Athenians, one hundred and ninety-two. Such
was the number of the slain on the one side and the other.
A strange prodigy likewise happened at this fight. Epizlus,
the son of Cuphagoras, an Athenian, was in the thick of the
fray, and behaving himself as a brave man should, when
suddenly he was stricken with blindness, without blow of
sword or dart; and this blindness continued thenceforth
during the whole of his after life. The following is the
account which he himself, as I have heard, gave of the
matter : he said that a gigantic warrior, with a huge beard,
which shaded all his shield, stood over against him j but the
144 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
ghostly semblance passed him by, and slew the man at his
side. Such, as I understand, was the tale which EpizSlus
told. 1
After the full of the moon two thousand Lacedaemonians
came to Athens. So eager had they been to arrive in time,
that they took but three days to reach Attica from Sparta.
They came, however, too late for the battle ; yet, as they
had a longing to behold the Medes, they continued their
march to Marathon and there viewed the slain. Then, after
giving the Athenians all praise for their achievement, they
departed and returned home.
61. ARISTIDES AND HIS OPPOSITION TO THBMISTOOLES
Plutarch, " Life of Aristides," HE ff.
Aristides was ostracized probably in 483 B.O. The years follow-
ing Marathon seem to have been consumed at Athens in a bitter
contention as to the true military policy. Aristides and the old
conservative party would fain restrict the navy, and trust, in case
the Persians returned, to the hoplites who had served so well at
Marathon. Themistocles and the "young democrats" were in
favor of a large navy, and staking everything on gaining control of
the sea. The contest of course often drifted away from the public
issue and turned on the merest personalities. The character of
Aristides was infinitely superior to that of his opponent ; but it
would have been, ruinous to Athens, to Greece, and to civilization,
if his non-naval policy had prevailed.
However, Themistocles making many dangerous alter-
ations, and withstanding and interrupting him in the whole
series of his actions, Aristides also was necessitated to set
himself against all Themistocles did, partly in self-defense,
and partly to impede his power from still increasing by the
favor of the multitude ; esteeming it better to let slip some
* According to Plutarch, Theseus (the Athenian national hero) was seen
by a great number of the Athenians fighting on their side against the
Persians.
490-483 B.C.] ARISTIDES 145
public conveniences, rather than that he by prevailing should
become powerful in all things. In fine, when he once had
opposed Themistocles in some measures that were expedient,
and had got the better of him, he could not refrain from
saying, when he left the assembly, that unless they sent
Themistocles and himself to the barathrum, 1 there could be
no safety for Athens. Another time, when urging some
proposal upon the people, though there were much opposi-
tion and stirring against it, he yet was gaining the day ; hut
just as the president of the assembly was about to put it to the
vote, perceiving by what had been said in debate the inex-
pediency of his advice, he let it fall. Also he often brought
in his propositions read by other persons, lest Themistocles,
through party spirit against him, should be any hindrance
to the good of the public.
In all the vicissitudes of public affairs, the constancy he
showed was admirable, not being elated with honors, and
demeaning himself tranquilly and sedately in adversity;
holding the opinion that he ought to offer himself to the serv-
ice of his country without mercenary views and irrespec-
tively of any reward, not only of riches, but even glory itself.
Hence it came, probably, that at the recital of these verses
of JSschylus in the theater, relating to Amphiaraus,
" For not at seeming just, but being so
He aims ; and from his depth of soil below,
Harvests of wise and prudent counsels grow,"
the eyes of all the spectators turned on Aristides, as if this
virtue, in an especial manner, belonged to him.
Examples of Aristides's Probity
He was a most determined champion for justice, not only
against feelings of friendship and favor, but wrath and mal-
i A pit into which the dead bodies of malefactors, or perhaps actually
living malefactors, were thrown.
146 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
ice. Thus it is reported of him that when prosecuting the
law against one who was his enemy, on the judges after ac-
cusation refusing to hear the criminal, and proceeding imme-
diately to pass sentence upon him, he rose in haste from his
seat and joined in petition with him for a hearing, and that
he might enjoy the privilege of the law. Another time,
when judging between two private persons, on the one de-
claring his adversary had very much injured Aristides;
" Tell me rather, good friend," he said, " what wrong he has
done you : for it is your cause, not my own, which I now
sit judge of." Being chosen to the charge of the public
revenue, he made it appear, that not only those of his time,
but the preceding officers, had alienated much treasure, and
especially Themistocles :
" Well known he was an able man to be,
But with his fingers apt to be too free."
Therefore, Themistocles, associating several persons against
Aristides, and impeaching him when he gave in his accounts,
caused him to be condemned of robbing the public ; so Idom-
eneus states ; but the best and chief est men of the city
much resenting it, he was not only exempted from the fine
imposed upon him, but likewise again called to the same
employment. Pretending now to repent him of his former
practice, and carrying himself with more remissness, he be-
came acceptable to such as pillaged the treasury, by not de-
tecting or calling them to an exact account. So that those
who had their fill of the public money began highly to ap-
plaud Aristides, and sued to the people, making interest to
have him once more chosen treasurer. But when they were
on the point of election, he reproved the Athenians. " When
I discharged my office well and faithfully," said he, "I was
insulted and abused; but now that I have allowed the pub-
lic thieves in a variety of malpractices, I am considered an
admirable* patriot. I am more ashamed, therefore, of this
483 B.C.] ARISTIDES 147
present honor than of the former sentence 5 and I commiser-
ate your condition, with whom it is more praiseworthy to
oblige ill men than to conserve the revenue of the public."
Saying thus, and proceding to expose the thefts that had
been committed, he stopped the mouths of those who cried
him up and vouched for him, but gained real and true com-
mendation from the best men.
[At Marathon he was one of the Athenian commanders ; he sec-
onded the aggressive plans of Miltiades heartily ; and after the
battle, being left in charge of the spoil, guarded it from peculation
with perfect integrity.]
Of all his virtues, the common people were most affected
with his justice, because of its continual and common use;
and thus, although of mean fortune and ordinary birth,
he possessed himself of the most kingly and divine appella-
tion of "Just"; which kings, however, and tyrants have
never sought after ; but have taken delight to be surnamed
besiegers of cities, thunderers, conquerors, or eagles again,
and hawks; 1 affecting, it seems, the reputation which pro-
ceeds from power and violence, rather than that of
virtue. . . . Aristides, therefore, had at first the fortune to
be beloved for this surname, but at length envied. Espe-
cially when Theinistoeles spread a rumor amongst the people,
that, by determining and judging all matters privately,
he had destroyed the courts of judicature, and was secretly
making way for a monarchy in his own person, without the
assistance of guards. Moreover, the spirit of the people,
now grown high, and confident with their late victory,
naturally entertained feelings of dislike to all of more than
common fame and reputation.
i Demetrius Poliorcetes, tlie besieger, Ptolemy Ceraunus, the thunderer,
and Demetrius Nicator, the conqueror, are the probable examples alluded
to; with Pyrrhus who had the name of JEtus, the eagle, and Antiochus
surnamed Hierax, the hawk.
148 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
How Aristides suffered Ostracism
Coming together, therefore, from all parts into the city,
they banished Aristides by the ostracism, giving their jeal-
ousy of his reputation the name of fear of tyranny. For
ostracism was riot the punishment of any criminal act, but
was speciously said to be the mere depression and humilia-
tion of excessive greatness and power; and was in fact a
gentle relief and mitigation of envious feeling, which was
thus allowed to vent itself in inflicting no intolerable injury,
only a ten years' banishment. But after it came to be
exercised upon base and villainous fellows they desisted
from it ; Hyperbolus being the last whom they banished by
the ostracism, [probably in 416 or 415 B.C.].
The cause of Hyperbolus's banishment is said to have
been this. Alcibiades and Nicias, men that bore the great-
est sway in the city, were of different factions. As the
people, therefore, were about to vote the ostracism, and obvi-
ously to decree it against one of them, consulting together
and uniting their parties, they contrived the banishment of
Hyperbolus. Upon which the people, being offended, as if
some contempt or affront was put upon the thing, left off and
quite abolished it. Ostracism was performed in this way.
Every one taking an ostracon, a sherd, that is, or piece of
earthenware, wrote upon it the citizen's name he would have
banished, and carried it to a certain part of the market-
place surrounded with wooden rails. First the magistrates
numbered all the sherds in gross (for if there were less than
six thousand, the ostracism was imperfect) ; then, laying
every name by itself, they pronounced him whose name was
written by the larger number, banished for ten years, with,
however, the enjoyment of his estate.
When they were writing the names on the sherds, it is
reported that an illiterate clownish fellow, giving Aristides
his sherd, supposing him a common citizen, begged him to
480-468 B.C.] ABISTIDES 149
write Aristides upon it ; and he being surprised and asking
if Aristides had ever done him any injury, "None at all,"
said he, " neither know I the man ; but I am tired of hearing
Mm everywhere called the Just" Aristides, hearing this, is
said to have made no reply, but returned the sherd with his
own name inscribed. At his departure from the city, lifting
up his hands to heaven, he made a prayer (the reverse, it
would seem, of that of Achilles), that the Athenians might
never have any occasion which should constrain them to
remember Aristides.
How Aristides was recalled from Banishment
Nevertheless, three years after, when Xerxes marched
through Thessaly and Bceotia into the country of Attica,
repealing the law, they decreed the return of the banished :
chiefly fearing Aristides, lest, joining himself to the enemy,
he should corrupt and bring over many of his fellow-citizens
to the party of the barbarians : much mistaking the man,
who, already before the decree, was exerting himself to
excite and encourage the Greeks to the defense of their
liberty. And afterwards, when Themistocles was general
with absolute power, he assisted him in all ways both in
action and counsel ; rendering, in consideration of the com-
mon security, the greatest enemy he had the most glorious
of men.
[The rest of his career he spent most honorably in the public
service, opposing divers dishonorable projects of Themistocles and
aiding the Athenians to organize their " Naval Confederacy." He
died probably in 468 B.C., having very likely seen the ostracism of
his great rival.]
His monument is to be seen at Phalerum, which they say
was built him by the city, he not having left enough even to
defray funeral charges. And it is stated, that his two
daughters were publicly married out of the prytaneum, or
statehouse, by the city, which decreed each of them three
150 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
thousand drachmas [about $540.00] for her portion ; and
that upon his sonLysimachus, the people bestowed a hundred
minas [about $1800.00] of money, and as many acres of
planted land, and ordered him besides, upon the motion of
Alcibiades, four drachmas [about 72 cents] a day.
62. How ATHENS RESOLVED TO FACE THE PERSIAN'S, AND
THEMISTOCLES INTERPRETED THE ADVERSE ORACLES
Herodotus, book VH, chaps. 138-144
Herodotus wrote the following possibly about 435 B.C. at a
time when Athens was extremely unpopular throughout Hellas.
In judging the position of the Athenians when Xerxes entered
Greece in 480 B.C., it should be remembered : (1) they were the
particular objects of Persian attack, singled out for special ven-
geance, and therefore with more to dread than other Hellenes ;
(2) they had just grounds for lacMng confidence in then* allies ;
(3) the old religious belief was still strong with them, and they
stood in honest awe of the opinion of the Delphic oracle, even if
there were reasons for feeling that the Pythoness had been cor-
rupted by Persia. It was a great moral victory which the Athe-
nian people won over its own fears, when it resolved to accept the
interpretation and advice of Themistocles, and to stake all upon
their fleet.
The expedition of the Persian king, though it was in
name directed against Athens, threatened really the whole
of Greece. And of this the Greeks were aware some time
before 5 but they did not all view the matter in the same
light. Some of them had given the Persian earth and
water, and were bold on this account, deeming themselves
thereby secured against suffering hurt from the barbarian
army; while others, who had refused compliance, were
thrown into extreme alarm. For whereas they considered
all the ships in Greece too few to engage the enemy, it was
plain that the greater number of states would take no part
in the war, but warmly favored the Medes.
480 B.C.] ATHENS RESISTS THE PERSIANS 151
And here I feel constrained to deliver an opinion, which
most men, I know, will mislike, but which, as it seems to
me to be true, I am determined not to withhold. Had the
Athenians, from fear of the approaching danger, quitted
their country, or had they without quitting it submitted to
the power of Xerxes, there would certainly have been no
attempt to resist the Persians by sea; in which case the
course of events by land would have been the following.
Though the Peloponnesians might have carried ever so many
breastworks across the Isthmus, yet their allies would have
fallen off from the Lacedaemonians, not by voluntary deser-
tion, but because town after town must have been taken by
the fleet of the barbarians; and so the Lacedaemonians
would at last have stood alone, and, standing alone, would
have displayed prodigies of valor, and died nobly. Either
they would have done thus, or else, before it came to that
extremity, seeing one Greek state after another embrace
the cause of the Medes, they would have come to terms
with King Xerxes, and thus, either way Greece would
have been brought under Persia. For I cannot understand
of what possible use the walls across the Isthmus could
have been, if the king had had the mastery of the sea.
If then a man should now say that the Athenians were the
saviors of Greece, he would not exceed the truth. For
they truly held the scales; and whichever side they es-
poused must have carried the day. They, too, it was who,
when they had determined to maintain the freedom of
Greece, roused up that portion of the Greek nation which
had not gone over to the Medes ; and so, next to the gods,
they repulsed the invader. Even the terrible oracles which
reached them from Delphi, and struck fear into their hearts,
failed to persuade them to fly from Greece. They had the
courage to remain faithful to their land, and await the com-
ing of the foe.
When the Athenians, anxious to consult the oracle, sent
152 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
their messengers to Delphi, hardly had the envoys completed
the customary .rites about the sacred precinct, and taken
their seats inside the sanctuary of the god, when the Py-
thoness, Aristonice by name, thus prophesied :
" Wretches, why sit ye here ? Fly, fly to the ends of creation,
Quitting your homes, and the crags which your city crowns with her
circlet.
Neither the head, nor the body is firm in its place, nor at hottom
Firm the feet, nor the hands ; nor resteth the middle uninjur'd.
All all ruined and lost. Since fire, and impetuous Ares,
Speeding along in a Syrian chariot, 1 hastes to destroy her.
Not alone shalt thou suffer ; full many the towers he will level,
Many the shrines of the gods he will give to a fiery destruction.
Even now they stand with dark sweat horribly dripping,
Trembling and quaking for fear ; and, lo ! from the high roofs trickleth
Black blood, sign prophetic of hard distresses impending.
Get ye away from the temple ; and brood on the ills that await ye ! "
When the Athenian messengers heard this reply, they
were filled with the deepest affliction : whereupon Timon,
the son of Androbftlus, one of the men of most mark among
the Delphians, seeing how utterly cast down they were at
the gloomy prophecy, advised them to take an olive branch,
and entering the sanctuary again, consult the oracle as sup-
pliants. The Athenians followed this advice, and going in
once more, said "0 king! we pray thee reverence these
boughs of supplication which we bear in our hands, and de-
liver to us something more comforting concerning our coun-
try. Else we will not leave thy sanctuary, but will stay
here till we die." Upon this the priestess gave them a
second answer, which was the following :
41 Pallas has not been able to soften the lord of Olympus,
Though she has often prayed him, and urged him with excellent
counsel.
Yet once more I address thee in words than adamant firmer,
When the foe shall have taken whatever the limit of Cecrops 2
1 That is, Assyrian.
By the " limit of Cecrops " the boundaries of Attica are intended.
480 B.C.] ATHENS RESISTS THE PERSIANS 153
Holds within it, and all which divine Cithseron * shelters,
Then far-seeing Zeus grants this to the prayers of Athen ;
Safe shall the wooden wall continue for thee and thy children.
Wait not the tramp of the horse, nor the footmen mightily moving
Over the land, but turn your hack to the foe, and retire ye.
Yet shall a day arrive when ye shall meet him in battle.
Holy Salamis, thou shalt destroy the offspring of women,
When men scatter the seed, or when they gather the harvest."
This answer seemed, as indeed it was, gentler than the
former one ; so the envoys wrote it down, and went back
with it to Athens. When, however, upon their arrival, they
produced it before the people, and inquiry began to be made
into its true meaning, many and various were the interpre-
tations which men put on it ; two, more especially, seemed
to be directly opposed to one another. Certain of the old
men were of opinion that the god meant to tell them the
citadel would escape ; for this was anciently defended by a
palisade ; and they supposed that barrier to be the " wooden
wall " of the oracle. Others maintained that the fleet was
what the god pointed at ; and their advice was that nothing
should be thought of except the ships, which had best be at
once got ready. Still such as said the " wooden wall " meant
the fleet, were perplexed by the last two lines of the oracle
" Holy Salamis, thou shalt destroy the offspring of women,
When men scatter the seed, or when they gather the harvest."
These words caused great disturbance among those who
took the wooden wall to be the ships ; since the interpreters
understood them to mean, that, if they made preparations
for a sea fight, they would suffer a defeat off Salamis.
Now there was at Athens a man who had lately made his
way into the first rank of citizens: his true name was
Themistocles ; but he was known more generally as the son
of Neocles. 2 This man came forward and said, that the
iThe mountain range between Bceotia and Attica.
The practice of addressing persons by their fathers' names was
common in Greece.
154 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
interpreters had not explained the oracle altogether aright
" for if," he argued, " the clause in question had really re-
spected the Athenians, it would not have been expressed so
mildly ; the phrase used would have been ' Luckless Salamis,'
rather than ' Holy Salamis/ had those to whom the island
belonged been about to perish in its neighborhood. Rightly
taken, the response of the god threatened the enemy, much
more than the Athenians." He therefore counseled his
countrymen to make ready to fight on board their ships,
since they were the wooden wall in which the god told them
to trust. When Themistocles had thus cleared the matter,
the Athenians embraced his view, preferring it to that of the
interpreters. The advice of these last had been against
engaging in a sea fight ; " all the Athenians could do," they
said, " was, without lifting a hand in their defense, to quit
Attica, and make a settlement in some other country."
Themistocles had before this given a counsel which pre-
vailed very seasonably. The Athenians, having a large
sum of money in their treasury, the produce of the mines at
Laurion, 1 were about to share it among the full-grown citi-
zens, who would have received ten drachmas apiece, when
Themistocles persuaded them to forbear the distribution,
and build with the money two hundred ships, to help them
in their war against the JSginetans. It was the breaking
out of the JSginetan war which was at this time the saving
of Greece ; for hereby were the Athenians forced to become
a maritime power. The new ships were not used for the
purpose for which they had been built, but became a help to
Greece in her hour of need. And the Athenians had not
only these vessels ready before the war, but they likewise
set to work to build more 5 while they determined, in a
1 Laurion was the name of the mountainous country immediately
above Cape Colonna (Sunium). The silver mines, with which the whole
tract abounded, had been worked from time immemorial. They belonged
to the Athenian government and were an important source of revenue.
480 B.C.] THE ARMY OF XERXES 155
council which was held after the debate upon the oracle,
that, according to the advice of the god, they would embark
their whole force aboard their ships, and, with such Greeks
as chose to join them, give battle to the barbarian invader.
63. THE CONTINGENTS AND NATIONS IN XEBXES' ARMY
Herodotus, book VH,* chaps. 60-83.. passim
The Persians, unlike some other conquerors, were not unwilling
to arm the subject populations, and use their contingents to swell
their own host. The result was, that Xerxes commanded one of
the most heterogeneous armies imaginable. As to the vast numbers
given by Herodotus, one should consider that, (1) before the battles
it would flatter the King's vanity to have his army represented as
large as possible ; (2) after the battles the Greeks would exagger-
ate their enemies as much as possible. Every student is at liberty
to attempt a guess as to the actual numbers, always remember-
ing the difficulty of feeding a good-sized army in a relatively
barren country like Greece.
What the exact number of troops of each nation was I
cannot say with certainty for it is not mentioned by any
one "but the whole land army together was found to amount
to one million seven hundred thousand men. The manner in
which the numbering took place was the following. A
body of ten thousand men was brought to a certain place,
and the men were made to stand as close together as
possible ; after which a circle was drawn around them, and
the men were let go: then where the circle had been, a
fence was built about the height of a man's middle; and
the inclosure was filled continually with fresh troops, till
the wh6le army had in this way been numbered. When
the numbering was over, the troops were drawn up according
to their several nations.
Now these were the nations that took part in this expedi-
tion. The PersianSj who wore on their heads the soft hat
156 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
called the tiara, and about their bodies, tunics with sleeves,
of divers colors, having iron scales upon them like the scales
of a fish. Their legs were protected by trousers ; and they
bore wicker shields for bucklers ; their quivers hanging at
their backs, and their arms being a short spear, a bow of
uncommon size, and arrows of reed. They had likewise
daggers suspended from their girdles along their right
thighs. Otanes, the father of "Xerxes' wife, Amesfcris, was
their leader.
The Medes had exactly the same equipment as the
Persians ; and indeed the dress common to both is not so
much Persian as Median. They had for commander Ti-
gran.es, of the race of the Acheemenids.
The Contingents from the Subject Peoples
The Cissians were equipped in the Persian fashion,
except in one respect : they wore on their heads, instead
of hats, fillets.
The Hyrcanians were likewise armed in the same way as
the Persians.
The Assyrians went to the war with helmets upon their
heads made of brass, and plaited in a strange fashion which
it is not easy to describe. They carried shields, lances,
and daggers very like the Egyptian ; but in addition, they
had wooden clubs knotted with iron, and linen corselets.
The Bactrians went to the war wearing a headdress very
like the Median, but armed with bows of cane, after the
custom of their country, and with short spears.
The Sacse, or Scyths, were clad in trousers, and had on
their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point. They bore the
bow of their country and the dagger ; besides which they
carried the battle-ax, or sagaris.
The Indians wore cotton dresses, and carried bows of
cane, and arrows also of cane with iron at the point.
480 B.C.] THE ARMY OF XERXES 15?
The Arians carried Median bows, but in other respects
were equipped like the Bactrians.
The Parthians and Chorasmians, with the Sogdians, the
Gandarians, and the Dadicse, had the Bactrian equipment
in all respects.
The Sarangians had dyed garments which showed brightly,
and buskins which reached to the kn.ee : they bore Median
bows, and lances.
The Arabians wore the aseira, or long cloak, fastened
about them with a girdle ; and carried at their right side
long bows, which when unstrung bent backwards.
The Ethiopians were clothed in the skins of leopards and
lions, and had long bows made of the stem of the palm leaf,
not less than four cubits in length. On these they laid short
arrows made of reed, and armed at the tip, not with iron,
but with a piece of stone, sharpened to a point, of the kind
used in engraving seals. They carried likewise spears, the
head of which was the sharpened horn of an antelope ; and
in addition they had knotted clubs. When they went into
battle they painted their bodies, half with chalk, and half
with vermilion.
The Organization and the Life Guardsmen
Such were the nations who fought upon the dry land, and
made up the infantry of the Persians. And they were com-
manded by the captains whose names have been above re-
corded. The marshaling and numbering of the troops had
been committed to them ; and by them were appointed the
captains over a thousand, and the captains over ten thousand;
but the leaders of ten men, or a hundred, were named by
the captains over ten thousand.
The whole of the infantry was under the command of
these generals, excepting the Ten Thousand. The Ten
Thousand, who were all Persians and all picked men, were
led by Hydarnes, the son of Hydarnes. They were called
158 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
" the Immortals," for the following reason. If one of their
body failed either by the stroke of death or of disease, forth-
with his place was filled up by another man, so that their
number was at no time either greater or less than 10,000.
Of all the troops the Persians were adorned with the
greatest magnificence, and they were likewise the most
valiant. Besides their arms, which have been already de-
scribed, they glittered all over with gold, vast quantities of
which they wore about their persons. They were followed
by litters, wherein rode their concubines, and by a numerous
train of attendants handsomely dressed. Camels and suinp-
ter beasts carried their provision, apart from that of the
other soldiers.
[There was also a vast corps of cavalry sent by many different
nations, and magnificently armed.]
64. How THE HELLESPONT WAS BRIDGED AND HOW XERXES
MARCHED FORTH FROM SARDIS
Herodotus, book VII, chaps. 33-44
In 480 B.C. Xerxes began his march from Asia into Hellas. All
the preparations for the invasion had been on such a vast scale,
the resources of the greatest empire the world had hitherto seen
had been drawn upon so amply, that the terrified Greeks had good
cause to remind one another. that the Great King "was not a
god but only a man.'*
As afterward viewed by such persons as Herodotus, Xerxes'
whole proceedings, the bridging of the Hellespont, the scourging
of the sea, the digging of the Mount Athos Canal, the assembling
of the vast host by land and water, were a challenge of overweening
human pride to heaven: a challenge that provoked a terrible
rebuke.
Xerxes, after this, made preparations to advance to Abydos,
where the bridge across the Hellespont from Asia to Europe
was lately finished. Midway between Sestos and Madytus
480 B.C.] BRIDGING THE HELLESPONT 159
in the Hellespontine Chersonese, and right over against
Abydos, there is a rocky tongue of land which runs out for
some distance into the sea.
Towards this, then, the men to whom the business was
assigned carried out a double bridge from Abydos; and
while the Phoenicians constructed one line with cables of
white flax, the Egyptians in the other used ropes made of
papyrus. Kow it is seven furlongs l across from Abydos to
the opposite coast. When, therefore, the channel had been
bridged successfully, it happened that a great storm arising
broke the whole work to pieces, and destroyed all that had
been done.
So when Xerxes heard of it he was full of wrath, and
straightway gave orders that the Hellespont should receive
three hundred lashes, and that a pair of fetters should be
cast into it. Nay, 1 have even heard it said, that he bade
the branders take their irons and therewith brand the Hel-
lespont. It is certain that he commanded those who
scourged the waters to utter, as they lashed them, these
barbarian and wicked words : " Thou bitter water, thy lord
lays on thee this punishment because thou hast wronged
him without a cause, having suffered no evil at his hands.
Verily King Xerxes will cross thee, ivJiether thou wilt or no !
Well dost thou deserve that no man should honor thee
with sacrifice ; for thou art of a truth a treacherous and un-
savory river." While the sea was thus punished by his or-
ders, he likewise commanded that the overseers of the work
should lose their heads.
Then, they, whose business it was, executed the unpleasing
task laid upon them ; and other master builders were set
over the work, who accomplished it in the way which I will
now describe.
1 Something less than a mile.
160 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
The Bridge across the Hellespont
They joined together triremes and penteconters, 360 to
support the bridge on the side of the Euxine Sea, and 314
to sustain the other ; and these they placed at right angles
to the sea, and in the direction of the current of the Helles-
pont, relieving by these means the tension of the shore cables.
Having joined the vessels, they moored them with anchors
of unusual size, that the vessels of the bridge towards the
Euxine might resist the winds which blow from within the
straits, and that those of the more western bridge facing
the JEgean might withstand the winds which set in from the
south and from the southeast. A gap was left in the pente-
conters in no fewer than three places, to afford a passage for
such light craft as chose to enter or leave the Euxine. When
all this was done, they made the cables taut from the shore
by the help of wooden capstans. This time, moreover, in-
stead of using the two materials separately, they assigned
to eaxsh bridge six cables, two of which were of white flax,
while four were of papyrus. Both cables were of the same
size and quality; but the flaxen were the heavier, weigh-
ing not less than a talent the cubit. When the bridge across
the channel was thus complete, trunks of trees were sawn
into planks, which were cut to the width of the bridge, and
these were laid side "by side upon the tightened cables, and
then fastened on the top. This done, brushwood was brought,
and arranged upon the planks, after which earth was heaped
upon the brushwood, and the whole trodden down into a
solid mass. Lastly a bulwark was set up on either side of
this causeway, of such a height as to prevent the sumpter
beasts and the horses from seeing over it and taking fright
at the water.
And now when all was prepared, the bridges, and the
works at Athos, the breakwaters about the mouths of the
cutting, which were made to hinder the surf from blocking
480 B.C.] BRIDGING THE HELLESPONT 161
up the entrances, and the cutting itself; and when the news
came to Xerxes that this last was completely finished,
then at length the host, having first wintered at Sardis,
began its march towards Abydos, fully equipped, on the first
approach of spring. At the moment of departure, the sun
suddenly quitted his seat in the heavens, and disappeared,
though there were no clouds in sight, but the sky was clear
and serene. Day was thus turned into night ; whereupon
Xerxes, who saw and remarked the prodigy, was seized with
alarm, and sending at once for the Magians, inquired of
them the meaning of the portent. They replied " God is
foreshowing to the Greeks the destruction of their cities ;
for the sun foretells for them, and the inoon for us." So
Xerxes, thus instructed, proceeded on his way with great
gladness of heart.
The Persian Order of March
First of all in the march went the baggage bearers, and the
sumpter beasts, and then a vast crowd of many nations
mingled together without any intervals, amounting to more
than one half of the army. After these troops an empty
space was left, to separate between them and the king. In
front of the king went first a thousand horsemen, picked
men of the Persian nation then spearmen a thousand, like-
wise chosen troops, with their spearheads pointing towards
the ground next ten of the sacred horses called Nisaean,
all daintily caparisoned. (Now these horses are called
Nisaean, because they come from the Nisaean plain, a vast
flat in Media, producing horses of unusual size.) After the
ten sacred horses came the holy chariot of Zeus, 1 drawn by
eight milk-white steeds, with the charioteer on foot behind
them holding the reins; for no mortal is ever allowed to
i This does not mean that the Persians worshiped the same gods that
the Greeks did, but merely shows the Greek custom of identifying foreign
deities with their own. The god referred to is Ahura-Mazda.
162 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
mount into the car. Next to this came Xerxes, himself rid-
ing in a chariot drawn by Nisaean horses, with his charioteer,
Patiramphes, the son of Otanes, a Persian, standing by his
side.
Thus rode forth Xerxes from Sardis but he was accus-
tomed every now and then, when the fancy took him, to
alight from his chariot and travel in a litter. Immediately
behind the king there followed a body of a thousand spear-
men, the noblest and bravest of the Persians, holding their
lances in the usual manner then came a thousand Persian
horse, picked men then ten thousand, picked also after
the rest, and serving on foot. Of these last one thousand
carried spears with golden pomegranates at their lower end
instead of spikes ; and these encircled the other nine thou-
sand, who bore on their spears pomegranates of silver. The
spearmen, too, who pointed their lances towards the ground
had golden pomegranates ; and the thousand Persians who
followed close after Xerxes had golden apples. Behind the
ten thousand footmen came a body of Persian cavalry, like-
wise ten thousand ; after which there was again a void space
for as much as two furlongs ; and then the rest of the army
followed in a confused crowd.
Arrived [atAbydos on the Hellespont], Xerxes wished to
look upon all his host ; so as there was a throne of white
marble upon a hill near the city, which they of Abydos had
prepared beforehand, by the king's bidding, for his especial
use, Xerxes took his seat on it, and, gazing thence upon the
shore below, beheld at one view all his land forces and all
his ships. While thus employed, he felt a desire to behold
a sailing match among his ships, which accordingly took
place, and was won by the Phoenicians of Sidon, much to
the joy of Xerxes, who was delighted alike with the race
and with his army.
480 B.C.] ENTERTAINMENT OF THE ARMY 163
65. How THE GREEK Towxs WERE FORCED TO ENTERTAIN
XERXES' ARMY
Herodotus, book VH, chaps. 118-120
What the Greek towns of Mysia, Troas, Thrace, Chalcidice,' etc.,
had to undergo when Xerxes' host with its imperious lord de-
scended upon them, is sufficiently shown in the following. Herod-
otus (an Asiatic Greek himself) had ample opportunity as a boy
to hear of the waste and ruin spread by the expedition.
Now the Greeks, wlio had to feed the army and to enter-
tain Xerxes, were brought thereby to the very extremity of
distress, insomuch that some of them were forced even to
forsake house and home. When the Thasians received and
feasted the host, on account of their possessions upon the
mainland, Antipater, the son of Orges, one of the citizens of
best repute, and the man to whom the business was assigned,
proved that the cost of the meal was four hundred talents
of silver. 1
And estimates almost to the same amount were made by
the superintendents in other cities. For the entertainment,
which had been ordered long beforehand and was reckoned
to be of much consequence, was, in the manner of it, such
as I will now describe. No sooner did the heralds who
brought the orders give their message, than in every city
the inhabitants made a division of their stores of corn, and
proceeded to grind flour of wheat and of barley for many
months together. Besides this, they purchased the best
cattle that they could find, and fattened them; and fed
poultry and waterfowl in ponds and buildings, to be in
readiness for the army ; while they likewise prepared gold
and silver vases and drinking cups, and whatsoever else is
needed for the service of the table. These last preparations
were made for the king only, and those who sat at meat
with him ; for the rest of the army nothing was made ready
i Nearly half a million dollars.
164 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
beyond the food for which orders had been given. On the
arrival of the Persians, a tent ready pitched for the purpose
received Xerxes, who took his rest therein, while the soldiers
remained under the open heaven. When the dinner hour
came, great was the toil of those who entertained the army ;
while the guests ate their fill, and then, after passing the
night at the place, tore down the royal tent next morning,
and seizing its contents, carried them all off, leaving nothing
behind.
On one of these occasions Megacreon of Abdra wittily
recommended his countrymen "to go to the temples in a
body, men and women alike, and there take their station as
suppliants, and beseech the gods that they would in future
always spare them one half of the woes which might threaten
their peace thanking them at the same time very warmly
for their past goodness in that they had caused Xerxes to be
content with only ONE meal in the day." For had the order been
to provide breakfast for the king as well as dinner, the Ab-
derites must either have fled before Xerxes came, or, if they
awaited his coming, have been brought to absolute ruin.
66. How XERXES DEALT WITH THE GREEK SPIES
Herodotus, book VH, chaps. 146-147
Xerxes was by no means lacking in a certain shrewdness, as is
shown in the following anecdote. All we know of him shows him
a man of very fair abilities and intentions, but these were direfully
perverted by his being placed in a position of semidivine power,
and by being constantly reminded that he was a demigod. Only a
person of remarkable poise could have kept his moral balance under
such circumstances.
[When the Greek deputies at Corinth had arranged that]
the quarrels between the various Greek states should be
made up, first of all they sent into Asia three men as spies.
These men reached Sardis, and took note of the king's forces,
480 B.C.] LEONIDAS AT THERMOPYLAE 165
but, being discovered, were examined by order of the gen-
erals who commanded the land army, and, having been con-
demned to suffer death, were led out to execution. Xerxes,
however, when the news reached him, disapproving the sen-
tence of the generals, sent some of his bodyguard with
instructions, if they found the spies still alive, to bring
them into his presence. The messengers found the spies
alive, and brought them before the king, who, when he
heard the purpose for which they had come, gave orders to
his guards to take them round the camp, and show them all
the footmen and all the horse, letting them gaze at every-
thing to their hearts' content ; then, when they were satis-
fied, to send them away unharmed to whatever country they
desired.
For these orders Xerxes gave afterwards the following
reasons. " Had the spies been put to death, 3 ' he said, " the
Greeks would have continued ignorant of the vastness of
his army, which surpassed the common report of it ; while
he would have done them a very small injury by killing
three of their men. On the other hand, by the return of
the spies to Greece, his power would become known ; and
the Greeks," he expected, " would make surrender of their
freedom before he began his march, by which means his
troops would be saved all the trouble of an expedition."
67. How LEONIDAS HELD THE PASS OF THERMOPYLAE
Herodotus, book TO, chaps. 201-212
Herodotus's story of the battle of Thermopylae is one of the
eternal classics, and needs no commentary to be read with enjoy-
ment. The part given to Demaratus, the Spartan exile, is that of
the unwelcome prophet of evil in the tragedy to hint and fore-
shadow disaster to the man who seemed to be lifting his power
among the gods : an effective touch characteristic of a writer who
is almost more a poet than an historian.
166 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
King Xerxes pitched his camp in the region of Malis called
Trachinie, while on their side the Greeks occupied the
straits. These straits the Greeks in general call Thermopylae
(the Hot Gates) ; but the natives, and those who dwell in the
neighborhood, call them Pylae (the Gates). Here then the
two armies took their stand ; the one master of all the region
lying north of Trachis, the other of the country extending
southward of that place to the verge of the continent.
The Greeks who at this spot awaited the coming of
Xerxes were the following : From Sparta, three hundred men-
at-arms ; from Arcadia, a thousand Tegeans and Mantineans,
five hundred of each people ; a hundred and twenty Orchome-
nians, from the Arcadian Orchomenus ; and a thousand from
other cities : from Corinth, four hundred men ; from Phlius,
two hundred; and from Mycenae, eighty. Such was the
number from the Peloponnese. There were also present,
from Bceotia, seven hundred Thespians and four hundred
Thebans.
Besides these troops, the Locrians of Opus and the
Phocians had obeyed the call of their countrymen, and sent,
the former all the force they had, the latter a thousand men.
For envoys had gone from the Greeks at Thermopylae among
the Locrians and Phocians, to call on them for assistance,
and to say " They were themselves but the vanguard of
the host, sent to precede the main body, which might every
day be expected to follow them. The sea was in good keep-
ing, watched by the Athenians, the JSginetans, and the rest
of the fleet. There was no cause why they should fear ; for
after all the invader was not a god but a man ; and there
never had been, and never would be, a man who was not
liable to misfortunes from the very day of his birth, and
those misfortunes greater in proportion to his own greatness.
The assailant, therefore, being only a mortal, must needs fall
from his glory." Thus urged, the Locrians and .the Phocians
had come with their troops to Trachis.
480 B.C.] LEONID AS AT THERMOPYL^J 167
The various nations had each captains of their own undei
whom they served ; but the one to whom all especially looked
up, and who had the command of the entire force, was the
Lacedaemonian, Leonidas.
The force with Leonidas was sent forward by the Spartans
in advance of their main body, that the sight of them might
encourage the allies to fight, and hinder them from going
over to the Medes, as it was likely they might have done
had they seen that Sparta was backward. They intended
presently, when they had celebrated the Carneian festival,
which was what now kept them at home, to leave a garrison
in Sparta, and hasten in full force to join the army. The
rest of the allies also intended to act similarly ; for it hap-
pened that the Olympic festival fell exactly at this same
period. None of them looked to see the contest at Ther-
mopylae decided so speedily ; wherefore they were content
to send forward a mere advanced guard. Such accordingly
were the intentions of the allies.
The Greek forces at Thermopylae, when the Persian army
drew near to the entrance of the pass, were seized with fear;
and a council was held to consider about a retreat. It was
the wish of the Peloponnesians generally that the army
should fall back upon the Peloponnese, and there guard the
Isthmus. But Leonidas, who saw with what indignation
the Phocians and Locrians heard of this plan, gave his voice
for remaining where they were, while they sent envoys to
the several cities to ask for help, since they were too few to
make a stand against an army like that of the Medes.
How Xerxes found the Greeks in the Pass
While this debate was going on, Xerxes sent a mounted
spy to observe the Greeks, and note how many they were,
and see what they were doing. He had heard, before he
came out of Thessaly, that a few men were assembled at
this place, and that at their head were certain Lacedsemoni-
168 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
ans, under Leonidas, a descendant of Heracles. The horse-
man rode up to the camp, and looked about him, but did not
see the whole army ; for such as were on the further side of the
wall (which had been rebuilt and was now carefully guarded)
it was not possible for him to behold ; but he observed those
on the outside, who were encamped in front of the rampart.
It chanced that at this time the Lacedaemonians held the
outer guard, and were seen by the spy, some of them en-
gaged in gymnastic exercises, others combing their long hair.
At this the spy greatly marveled, but he counted their num-
ber, and when he had taken accurate note of everything, he
rode back quietly ; for no one pursued after him, nor paid
any heed to his visit. So he returned, and told Xerxes all
that he had seen.
Upon this, Xerxes, who had no means of surmising the
truth namely, that the Spartans were preparing to do or
die manfully but thought it laughable that they should be
engaged in such employments, sent and called to his presence
Demaratus * the son of Ariston, who still remained with the
army. When he appeared Xerxes told him all that he had
heard, and questioned him concerning the news, since he was
anxious to understand the meaning of such behavior on the
part of the Spartans. Then Demaratus said :
"I spake to thee, king! concerning these men long
since, when we had but just begun our march upon Greece ;
thou, however, didst only laugh at my words, when I told
thee of all this, which I saw would come to pass. Earnestly
do I struggle at all times to speak truth to thee, sire ; and
now listen to it once more. These men have coine to dispute
the pass with us ; and it isfor this that they are now making
ready. 'Tis their custom, when they are about to hazard
their lives, to adorn their heads with care. Be assured,
however, that if thou canst subdue the men who are here and
1 A former king of Sparta who had been deposed and driven from
Greece by Cleomenes, the other king.
480 B.C.] LEONIDAS AT THERMOPYLAE 169
the Lacedaemonians who remain in Sparta, there is no
other nation in all the world which will venture to lift a
hand in their defense. Thou hast now to deal with the
first kingdom and town in Greece, and with the bravest men.'*
Then Xerxes, to whom what Demaratus said seemed alto-
gether to surpass belief, asked further, " how it was possible
for so small an army to contend with his ? "
" king ! " Demaratus answered, " let me be treated as a
liar, if matters fall not out as I say."
How Leonidas repulsed the Persians
But Xerxes was not persuaded any the more. Four
whole days he suffered to go by, expecting that the
Greeks would run away. When, however, he found on the
fifth that they were not gone, thinking that their firm stand
was mere impudence and recklessness, he grew wroth, and
sent against them the Medes and Cissians, with orders to
take them alive and bring them into his presence. Then the
Medes rushed forward and charged the Greeks, but fell in
vast numbers : others, however, took the places of the slain,
and would not be beaten off, though they suffered terrible
losses. In this way it became clear to all, and especially to
the king, that though he had plenty of combatants, he had
but very few warriors. The struggle, however, continued
during the whole day.
Then the Medes, having met so rough a reception, with-
drew from the fight ; and their place was taken by the band
of Persians under Hydarnes, whom the king called his " Im-
mortals " : 1 they, it was thought, would soon finish the
business. But when they joined battle with the Greeks,
'twas with no better success than the Median detachment
things went much as before the two armies fighting in a
narrow space, and the barbarians using shorter spears
than the Greeks, and having no advantage from their num-
iSee pp. 157, 168, for the character of this formidable bodyguard.
170 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
bers. The Lacedaemonians fought in a way worthy of note,
and showed themselves far more skillful in fight than theii
adversaries, often turning their backs, and making as though
they were all flying away, on which the barbarians would
rush after them with much noise and shouting, when the
Spartans at their approach would wheel round and face their
pursuers, in this way destroying vast numbers of the enerny.
Some Spartans likewise fell in these encounters, but only a
very few. At last the Persians, finding that all their efforts
to gain the pass availed nothing, and- that, whether they
attacked by divisions or in any other way, it was to no pur-
pose, withdrew to their own quarters.
During these assaults, it is said that Xerxes, who was
watching the battle, thrice leaped from the throne on which he
sate, in terror for his army.
Next day the combat was renewed, but with no better suc-
cess on the part of the barbarians. The Greeks were so few
that the barbarians hoped to find them disabled, by reason
of their wounds, from offering any further resistance ; and
so they once more attacked them. But the Greeks were
drawn up in detachments according to their cities, and bore
the brunt of the battle in turns, all except the Phocians,
who had been stationed on the mountain to guard the path-
way. So, when the Persians found no difference between that
day and the preceding, they again retired to their quarters.
68. How LEONIDAS AND HIS BAND PEBISHED AT
THERMOPYLAE
Herodotas, book VH f chaps. 218-228
After the events narrated in the last selection, Herodotus goes
on to tell the story of the sacrifice of Leonidas and his Spartans,
hi a manner almost Homeric in its simple vividness.
Now, as the king was in a great strait, and knew not
how he should deal with the emergency, Ephialtes, the
480 B.C.] THE LAST STAND OP LEONIDAS 171
son of Eurydmus, a man of Mails, came to him and was
admitted to a conference. Stirred by the hope of receiving
a rich reward at the king's hands, he had come to tell Mm
of the pathway which led across the mountain to Ther-
mopylae; by which disclosure he brought destruction on
the band of Greeks who had there withstood the barbarians.
This Ephialtes afterwards, from fear of the Lacedaemonians,
fled into Thessaly : [and a long time afterward, was killed
in a private quarrel by an enemy]. . . .
Great was the joy of Xerxes on this occasion ; and as he
approved highly of the enterprise which Ephialtes under-
took to accomplish, he forthwith sent upon the errand
Hydarnes, and the Persians under him. 1 The troops left
the camp about the time of the lighting of the lamps.
The Persians took this path, and, crossing the As6pus,
continued their march through the whole of the night,
having the mountains of (Eta on their right hand, and on
their left those of Trachis. At dawn of day they found
themselves close to the summit. Now the hill was guarded,
as I have already said, by a thousand Phocian men-at-arms,
who were placed there to. defend the pathway, and at the
same time to secure their own country. They had been
given the guard of the mountain path, while the other
Greeks defended the pass below, because they had volun-
teered for the service, and had pledged themselves to Leoni-
das to maintain the post.
* [But alarmed by the Persians, and galled by their arrows, they
retreated in cowardly fashion up the mountain slope, and left the
path clear to Hydarnes.]
The Greeks learn that the Pass is Turned
The Greeks at Thermopylae received the first warning
of the destruction which the dawn would bring on them
iThe 10,000 "Immortals."
172 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
from the seer Megistias, who read their fate in the victims
as he was sacrificing. After this deserters came in, and
brought the news that the Persians were marching round
by the hills: it was still night when these men arrived.
Last of all, the scouts came running down from the heights,
and brought in the same accounts, when the day was just
beginning to break. Then the Greeks held a council to
consider what they should do, and here opinions were
divided : some were strong against quitting their post, while
others contended to the contrary. So when the council
had broken up, part of the troops departed and went their
ways homeward to their several states; part, however,
resolved to remain, and to stand by Leonidas to the last.
It is said that Leonidas himself sent away the troops
who departed, because he tendered their safety, but thought
it unseemly that either he or his Spartans should quit the
post which they had been especially sent to guard. For
my own part, I incline to think that Leonidas gave the
order, because he perceived the allies to be out of heart
and unwilling to encounter the danger to which his own
mind was made up. He therefore commanded them to
retreat, but said that he himself could not draw back with
honor; knowing that, if he stayed, glory awaited him,
and that Sparta in that case would not lose her prosperity.
For when the Spartans, at the very beginning of the war,
sent to consult the oracle concerning it, the answer which
they received from the Pythoness was, " that either Sparta
must be overthrown by the barbarians, or one of her kings
must perish."
So the allies, when Leonidas ordered them to retire,
obeyed him and forthwith departed. Only the Thespians
and the Thebans remained with the Spartans ; and of these
the Thebans were kept back by Leonidas as hostages, very
much against their will. The Thespians, on the. contrary,
stayed entirely of their . own accord, refusing to retreat,
480 B.C.] THE LAST STAND OF LBONIDAS 173
and declaring that they would not forsake Leonidas and
his followers. So they abode with the Spartans, and died
with them Their leader was Demophilus, the son of
Diadromes.
How Leonidas made his Last Stand
At sunrise Xerxes made libations, after which he waited
until the time when the market is wont to fill, 1 and then
began his advance. Ephialtes had instructed him thus,
as the descent of the mountain is much quicker, and the
distance much shorter, than the way round the hills, and
the ascent. So the barbarians under Xerxes began to draw
nigh; and the Greeks under Leonidas, as they now went
north determined to die, advanced much farther than on
previous days, until they reached the more open portion
of the pass. Hitherto they had held their station within
the wall, and from this had gone forth to fight at the point
where the pass was the narrowest. Now they joined battle
beyond the defile, and carried slaughter among the bar-
barians, who fell in heaps. Behind them the captains of
the squadrons, armed with whips, urged their men forward
with continual blows. Many were thrust into the sea, and
there perished; a still greater number were trampled to
death by their own soldiers; no one heeded the dying.
For the Greeks, reckless of their own safety and desperate,
since they knew that, as the mountain had been crossed,
their destruction was nigh at hand, exerted themselves with
the most furious valor against the barbarians.
By this time the spears of the greater number were all
shivered, and with their swords they hewed down the ranks
of the Persians; and here, as they strove, Leonidas fell
fighting bravely, together with many other famous Spartans.
There fell, too, at the same time very many famous Persians :
1 literally this would be translated " at the time of full market," which
was the common expression among the Greeks to denote about 10.30 A.M.
174 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
among them, two sons of Darius, Abrocomes and Hyper-
anthes, his children by Phratagun^, the daughter of Artanes.
And now there arose a fierce struggle between the Per-
sians and the Lacedaemonians over the body of Leonidas, in
which the Greeks four times drove back the enemy, and at
last by their great bravery succeeded in bearing off the
body. This combat was scarcely ended when the Persians
with Ephialtes approached ; and the Greeks, informed that
they drew nigh, made a change in the manner of their fight-
ing. Drawing back into the narrowest part of the pass, and
retreating even behind the cross wall, they posted them-
selves upon a hillock, where they stood all drawn up to-
gether in one close body, except only the Thebans. The
hillock whereof I speak is at the entrance of the straits,
where the stone lion stands which was set up in honor of
Leonidas.
Here they defended themselves to the last, such as still
had swords using them, and the others resisting with their
hands and teeth ; till the barbarians, who in part had pulled
down the wall and attacked them in front, in part had gone
round and now encircled them upon every side, overwhelmed
and buried the remnant which was left beneath showers of
missile weapons.
Thus nobly did the whole body of Lacedaemonians and
Thespians behave ; but nevertheless one man is said to have
distinguished himself above all the rest, to wit, Dineces the
Spartan. A speech which he made before the Greeks en-
gaged the Medes, remains on record. One of the Trachini-
ans told him, "Such was the number of the barbarians,
that when they shot forth their arrows the sun would be
darkened by their multitude." Dineces, not at all fright-
ened at these words, but making light of the Median num-
bers, answered : " Our Trachinian friend brings us excellent
tidings. If the Medes darken the sun, we shall have our fight
in the shade." . . .
480 B.C.] THE EVACUATION OP ATTICA 175
[After the war had ended and the Hellenes had proved
victorious,] the slain were buried where they fell ; and in
their honor, nor less in honor of those who died -before
Leonidas sent the allies away, an inscription was set up,
which said:
** Here did four thousand men from Pelops* land
Against three hundred myriads bravely stand."
This was in honor of all. Another was for the Spartans
alone :
" Go, stranger, and to Lacedaemon tell
That here, obeying her behests, we fell."
69. THE EVACUATION OF ATTICA AND THE MUSTEBING
OF THE GREEK FLEET
Herodotus, book Vm, chaps. 40-43
In a very few days after the forcing of Thermopylae and the
flight of the Greek ships from Euboea, the Athenians completed
this evacuation of Attica, before the Persians could enter the coun-
try. Probably a population of at least 250,000 had to be moved ;
and the whole process seems to have been conducted with remark-
able skill and celerity. It called for a marvelous spirit of devo-
tion and patriotism to be able thus to forsake farmsteads, city
homes, temples, and a vast quantity of non-movable property, and
go forth homeless, and not knowing whether they might ever re-
turn. Yet there seems to have been almost no suggestion of
submission.
Meanwhile, the Grecian fleet, which had left Artemisiuni,
proceeded to Salamis, at the request of the Athenians, and
there cast anchor. The Athenians had begged them to take
up this position, in order that they might convey their
women and children out of Attica, and further might delib-
erate upon the course which it now behoved them to follow.
Disappointed in the hopes which they had previously enter-
tained, they were about to hold a council concerning the
176 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
present posture of their affairs. For they had looked to see
the Peloponnesians drawn up in full force to resist the
enemy in Boeotia, but found nothing of what they had ex-
pected; nay, they learnt that the Greeks of those parts,
only concerning themselves about their own safety, were
building a wall across the Isthmus, and intended to guard
the Peloponnesus, and let the rest of Greece take its chance.
These tidings caused them to make the request whereof I
spoke, that the combined fleet should anchor at Salamis.
So while the rest of the fleet lay to off this island, the
Athenians cast anchor along their own coast Immediately
upon their arrival, proclamation was made, that every Athe-
nian should save his children and household as he best
cbuld ; whereupon some sent their families to JEgina, some
to Salamis, but the greater number to Troezen. This re-
moval was made with all possible haste, partly from a desire
to obey the advice of the oracle, but still more for another
reason. The Athenians say that they have in their Acropo-
lis a huge serpent, which lives in the temple, and is the
guardian of the whole place. Nor do they only say this,
but, as if the serpent really dwelt there, every month they
lay out its food, which consists of a honey cake. Up to
this time the honey cake had always been consumed ; but
now it remained untouched. So the priestess told the
people what had happened; whereupon they left Athens
the more readily, since they believed that the goddess had
already abandoned the citadel. As soon as all was removed,
the Athenians sailed back to their station.
And now, the remainder of the Grecian sea force, hearing
that the fleet which had been at Arteinisium,.was come to
Salamis, joined it at that island from Troezen orders hav-
ing been issued previously that the ships should muster at
P6gon, the port of the Troszenians. The vessels collected
were many more in number than those which had fought
at Artemisium, and were furnished by more cities. The
480 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS 177
admiral was the same who had commanded before, to wit,
Eurybiades, the son of Eurycleides, who was a Spartan, but
not of the family of the kings : the city, however, which
sent by far the greatest number of ships, and the best sail-
ors, was Athens.
[In all there were 378 triremes; whereof Athens sent
180 ; and the Spartans, though supplying the chief admiral,
sent only 16.]
70. How THEMISTOCLES BROUGHT ON THE BATTLE OF
SALAMIS
Herodotus, book Yin, chaps. 49-82
The story of how Themistocles forced his reluctant allies to fight
at Salamis will remain forever as the classic example of worldly
cunning successfully applied. In Themistocles we seem to see
again an incarnation of Odysseus, the typically Hellenic " hero of
many devices," surpassing in plot and guile. By his message to
the Persian admirals he brought on the battle which saved Hellas :
yet in one sense the crowning part of his action was that if the
Persians had been victorious he could have actually claimed their
favor, as having made Xerxes* triumph possible.
When the captains from the various nations were come
together at Salamis, a council of war was summoned ; and
Eurybiades proposed that any one who liked to advise, should
say which place seemed to him the fittest, among those still
in the possession of the Greeks, to be the scene of a naval
combat. Attica, he said, was not to be thought of now; but
he desired their counsel as to the remainder. The speakers
mostly advised that the fleet should sail away to the Isth-
mus, and there give battle in defense of the Peloponnesus ;
and they urged as a reason for this, that if they were worsted
in a sea fight at Salamis, they would be shut up in an island
where they could get no help ; but if they were beaten near
the Isthmus, they could escape to their homes.
178 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
As the captains from the Peloponnesus were thus advis-
ing, there came an Athenian to the camp, who brought word
that the barbarians had entered Attica, and were ravaging
and burning everything. . . .
[The Greek admirals remained at Salamis until the Acrop-
olis was taken, then they] no sooner heard what had befallen
the Athenian citadel, than they fell into such alarm that
some of the captains did not even wait for the council to
come to a vote, but embarked hastily on board their vessels,
and hoisted sail as though they would take to flight imme-
diately. The rest, who stayed at the council board, came
to a vote that the fleet should give battle at the Isthmus.
Night now drew on ; and the captains, dispersing from the
meeting, proceeded on board their respective ships.
[On returning to his own vessel, however, Themistocles was met
by a friend, who urged him at all hazards to induce Burybiades,
the Spartan high admiral, to fight ; otherwise the Greek fleet would
soon disperse, and all the national cause be lost.]
The suggestion greatly pleased Themistocles ; and with-
out answering a word, he went straight to the vessel of Eury-
biades. Arrived there, he let him know that he wanted to
speak with him on a matter touching the public service. So
Eurybiades bade him come on board, and say whatever he
wished. Then Themistocles, seating himself at his side, went
over all the arguments [in favor of fighting at Salamis]. At
last he persuaded Eurybiades, by his importunity, again to
collect the captains to council.
The Arguments before the Spartan Admiral
As soon as they were come, and before Eurybiades had
opened to them his purpose in assembling them together,
Themistocles, as men are wont to do when they are very
anxious, spoke much to divers of them ; whereupon the Co-
rinthian captain, Adeimantus, the son of Ocytus, observed
480 B.C.] THE BATTLE OP SALAMIS 179
" Themistocles, at the games they who start too soon are
scourged" True," rejoined the other in his excuse, " but
they who wait too late are not. crowned."
Thus he gave the Corinthian at this time a mild answer;
and towards Eurybiades himself he did not now use any of
those arguments which he had urged' before, or say aught of
the allies betaking themselves to flight if once they broke
up from Salamis ; it would have been ungraceful for him,
when the confederates were present, to make accusation
against any : but he had recourse to quite a new sort of rea-
soning, and addressed him as follows :
" With ih.ee it rests, Eurybiades ! to save Greece, if thou
wilt only hearken unto me, and give the enemy battle here,
rather than yield to the advice of those among us, who would
have the fleet withdrawn to the Isthmus. Hear now, I be-
seech thee, and judge between the two courses. At the Isth-
mus thou wilt fight in an open sea, which is greatly to our
disadvantage, since our ships are heavier and fewer in num-
ber than the enemy's ; and further, thou wilt in an}' case
lose Salamis, Megara, and JEgina, even if all the rest goes
well with us. The land and sea force of the Persians will
advance together; and thy retreat will but draw them
towards the Peloponnesus, and so bring all Greece into
peril. , , .
[Whereas at Salamis in the narrow straits the Greeks would be
able to use their few ships to great advantage : and if the Greeks
were victorious they would have forsaken no more territory to the
enemy.]
When men counsel reasonably, reasonable success ensues;
but when in their counsels they reject reason, God does not
choose to follow the wanderings of human fancies."
When Themistocles had thus spoken, Adeimantus the Co-
rinthian again attacked him, and bade him be silent, since
he was a man without a city ; at the same time he called on
180 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
Eurybiades not to put the question at the instance of one
who had no country, and urged that Themistocles should
show of what state he was envoy, before he gave his voice
with the rest. This reproach he made, because the city of
Athens had been taken, and was in the hands of the barba-
rians. Hereupon Th&mistocles spake many bitter things
against Adeimantus and the Corinthians generally ; and for
proof that he had a country, reminded the captains, that
with two hundred ships l at his command, all fully manned
for battle, he had both city and territory as good as theirs ;
since there was no Grecian state which could resist his men
if they were to make a descent.
After this declaration, he turned to Eurybiades, and ad-
dressing him with still greater warmth and earnestness
" If thou wilt stay here," he said, i( and behave like a brave
man, all will be well if not, thou wilt bring Greece to
ruin. For the whole fortune of the war depends on our
ships. Be thou persuaded by niy words. If not, we will
take our families on board, and go, just as we are, to Siris,
in Italy, which is ours from of old, and which the prophecies
declare we are to colonize some day or other. You then,
when you have lost allies like us, will hereafter call to mind
what I have now said."
At these words of Themistocles, Eurybiades changed his
determination ; principally, as I believe, because he feared
that if he withdrew the fleet to the Isthmus, the Athenians
would sail away, and knew that without the Athenians,
the rest of their ships could be no match for the fleet of the
enemy. He therefore decided to remain, and give battle at
Salamis.
And now, the different chiefs, notwithstanding their
skirmish of words, on learning the decision of Eurybiades,
at once made ready for the fight. Morning broke ; and,
just as the sun rose, the shock of an earthquake was felt
l This would imply about 40,000 men.
480 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS 181
both on shore and at sea : whereupon the Greeks resolved
to approach the gods with prayer, and likewise to send and
invite the JEacids to their aid. And this they did, with as
much speed as they had resolved on it. Prayers were
offered to all the gods ; and Telamon and Ajax were invoked
at once from Salainis, while a ship was sent to JEgina, to
JSacus himself, and the other JEacids. 1
[Meantime in Xerxes' council of war the general vote had been
to meet the Greek fleet in battle, although Artemisia, queen of
Halicarnassus, expressed doubts as to the result. The Persians
spent the night preparing most confidently for the battle, while
the Greeks were in keen distress and alarm, especially the
Peloponnesians. So little confidence was there in their fleet, that
the Peloponnesians were striving desperately to build a wall across
the Isthmus at Corinth to halt the further advance of the Barba-
rians.]
So the Greeks at the Isthmus toiled unceasingly, as
though in the greatest peril; since they never imagined
that any great success would be gained by the fleet. The
Greeks at Salamis, on the other hand, when they heard
what the rest were about, felt greatly alarmed ; but their
fear was not so much for themselves as for the Peloponnesus.
At first they conversed together in low tones, each man with
his fellow, secretly, and marveled at the folly shown by
Eurybiades ; but presently the smothered feeling broke out,
and another assembly was held ; whereat the old subjects
provoked much talk from the speakers, one side maintaining
that it was best to sail to the Peloponnesus and risk battle
for that, instead of abiding at Salamis and fighting for a
land already taken by the enemy; while the other, which
consisted of the Athenians, JLginetans, and Megarians, was
urgent to remain and have the battle fought where they
were.
iThe most famous of this line of mythical heroes was Achilles.
182 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
TJiemistocles's Message to the Persians
Then Themistocles, when he saw that the Peloponnesians
would carry the vote against him, went out secretly from
the council, and, instructing a certain man what he should
say, sent him on board a merchant ship to the fleet of the
Medes. The man's name was Sicinnus ; he was one of
Themistocles' s household slaves, and acted as tutor to his
sons; in after times, when the Thespians were admitting
persons to citizenship Themistocles made him a Thespian,
and a rich man to boot. The ship brought Sicinnus to the
Persian fleet, and there he delivered his message to the
leaders in these words :
" The Athenian commander has sent me to you privily,
without the knowledge of the other Greeks. He is a well-
wisher to the king's cause, and would rather success should
attend on you than on his countrymen ; wherefore he bids
me to tell you that fear has seized the Greeks and they are
meditating a hasty flight. Now then it is open to you to
achieve the best work that ever ye wrought, if only ye will
hinder their escaping. They no longer agree among them-
selves, so that they will not now make any resistance nay,
'tis likely ye may see a fight already begun between such as
favor and such as oppose your cause." The messenger, when
he had thus expressed himself, departed and was seen no
more.
Then the captains, believing all that the messenger had
said, proceeded to land a large body of Persian troops on the
islet of Psyttaleia, which lies between Salamis and the
mainland ; after which, about the hour of midnight, they
advanced their western wing towards Salamis, so as to in-
close the Greeks. At the same time the force stationed
about Ceos and Cynosura moved forward, and filled the
whole strait as far as Munychia with their ships. This
advance was made to prevent the Greeks from escaping by
480 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS 183
flight, and to block them up in Salamis, where it was thought
that vengeance might be taken upon them for the battles
fought near Artemisiurn. The Persian troops were landed
on the islet of Psyttaleia, because, as soon as the battle
began, the men and wrecks were likely to be drifted thither,
as the isle lay in the very path of the coming fight, and
they would thus be able to save their own men and destroy
those of the enemy. All these movements were made in
silence, that the Greeks might have no knowledge of them ;
and they occupied the whole night, so that the men had no
time to get their sleep.
The Greek Captains learn that tliey are Entrapped
Meanwhile, among the captains at Salamis, the strife of
words grew fierce. As yet they did not know that they were
encompassed, but imagined that the barbarians remained in
the same places where they had seen them the day before.
In the midst of their contention, Aristides, the son of
Lysimachus, who had crossed from ^Egina, arrived in
Salamis. He was an Athenian, and had been ostracized by
the commonalty; yet I believe, from what I have heard
concerning his character, that there was not in all Athens
a man so worthy or so just as he. He now came to the
council, and, standing outside, called for Themistocles.
Now Themistocles was not his friend, but his most deter-
mined enemy. However, under the pressure of the great
dangers impending, Aristides forgot their feud, and called
Themistocles out of the council, since he wished to confer
with him. He had heard before his arrival of the impar
tience of the Peloponnesians to withdraw the fleet to the
Isthmus. As soon therefore as Themistocles came forth,
Aristides addressed him in these words :
" Our rivalry at all times, and especially at the present
season, ought to be a struggle, which of us shall most ad-
vantage our country. Let me then say to thee, that so far
184 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
as regards the departure of tlie Peloponnesians from this
place, much talk and little will be found precisely alike. I
have seen with my own eyes that which I now report : that,
however much the Corinthians or Eurybiades himself may
wish it, they cannot now retreat; for we are inclosed on
every side by the enemy. Go in to them, and make this
known."
" Thy advice is excellent," answered the other ; " and
thy tidings are also good. That which I earnestly desired
to happen, thine eyes have beheld accomplished. Know
that what the Medes have now done was at my instance ;
for it was necessary, as our men would not fight here of their
own free will, to make them fight whether they would or
no. But come now, as thou hast brought the good news,
go in and tell it. For if I speak to them, they will think it
a feigned tale, and will not believe that the barbarians have
inclosed us around. Therefore do thou go to them, and
inform them how matters stand. If they believe thee,
'twill be for the best ; but if otherwise, it will not harm.
For it is impossible that they should now flee away, if we
are indeed shut in on all sides, as thou sayest."
Than Aristides entered the assembly, and spoke to the
captains : he had come, he told them, from JSgina, and had
but barely escaped the blockading vessels the Greek fleet
was entirely inclosed by the ships of Xerxes and he
advised them to get themselves in readiness to resist the
foe. Having said so much, he withdrew. And now another
contest arose ; for the greater part of the captains would
not believe the tidings.
But while they still doubted, a Tenian trireme, com-
manded by Panaetius the son of Sdsimenes, deserted from
the Persians and joined the Greeks, bringing full intelligence.
For this reason the Tenians were inscribed upon the tripod
at Delphi among those who overthrew the barbarians.
With this ship, which deserted to their side at Salamis, and
480 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS 185
the Lemnian vessel which came over before at Artemisium,
the Greek fleet was brought to the full number of 380
ships ; otherwise it fell short by two of that amount.
71. THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS
Herodotus, book Vm, chaps. 83 ff.
The date of the battle of Salamis is set by modern writers at
about the 20th of September, 480 B.C. Although the Phoenician
sailors in the Persian armada were excellent naval fighters, prob-
ably the rest of the crews were inferior; and very few native
Persians could have been on board the ships saving perhaps
the admirals and their suites. The Greeks fought as desperate
men at bay, with their all at stake. The wind, the position, the
handier build of their vessels, everything, in short, favored
them. The result could not have been very long doubtful.
The Greeks not doubting at last what they had been told,
made ready to fight. At dawn all the marines * were as-
sembled, and speeches made to them. Of these the best
was by Themistocles : who throughout contrasted things
noble and things base, and bade them, so far as lay in
human powers, always to choose the nobler part. Thus
winding up his discourse, he bade them board their ships,
and so they did.
Scarce had the fleet quitted the land when they were at-
tacked by the barbarians. At once most of the Greeks be-
gan to backwater, and were about touching the shore, when
Ameinias of Pall6n, 2 one of the Athenian captains, darted
forth in front of the line, and charged a ship of the enemy.
The two vessels became entangled, and could not separate,
whereupon the rest of the fleet came up to help Ameinias,
and engaged with the Persians. Such is the account which
the Athenians give of the way in which the battle began;
but the JSginetans maintain that the vessel which had been
1 The heavy infantry serving on each trireme.
2 PallSne* was one of the most famous of the Athenian country towns.
186 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
to JEgina for the JEacidse, was the one that brought on the
fight. It is also reported that a phantom in the form of a
wom an appeared to the Greeks, and, in a voice that was
heard from end to end of the fleet, cheered them on to the
fight ; first, however, rebuking them, and saying " Strange
men, how long are ye going to backwater ? "
Hoto the Battle was Joined
Against the Athenians, who held the western extremity
of the line towards Eleusis, were placed the Phoenicians;
against the Lacedaemonians, whose station was eastward
towards the Piraeus, 1 the lonians. Of these last a few only
followed the advice of Themistocles, to fight backwardly ;
the greater number did far otherwise : and I could mention
here the names of many trierarchs who took vessels from
the Greeks.
Far the greater number of the Persian ships engaged in
this battle were disabled, either by the Athenians or by the
JEginetans. For as the Greeks fought in order and kept
their line, while the barbarians were in confusion and had
no plan in anything that they did, the issue of the battle
could scarce be other than it was. Yet the Persians fought
far more bravely here than at Euboea, and indeed surpassed
themselves; each did his utmost through fear of Xerxes,
for each thought that the king's eye was upon himself. 2
What part the several nations, whether Greek or bar-
barian, took in the combat, I am not able to say for certain ;
Artemisia, however, I know, distinguished herself in such a
way as raised her even higher than she stood before in the
esteem of the king. For after confusion had spread through-
out the whole of the king's fleet, and her ship was closely
pursued by an Athenian trireme, she, having no way to fly,
1 The harbor of Athens.
2 The anger of Xerxes led to very serious consequences; compare
page 188.
480 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS 187
since in front of her were a number of friendly vessels, and
she was nearest of all the Persians to the enemy, resolved
on a measure which in fact proved her safety. Pressed by
the Athenian pursuer, she bore straight against one of the
ships of her own party, a Calyndian, which had Darnasithy-
mus, the Calyndian king, himself on board. I cannot say
whether she had had any quarrel with the man while the
fleet was at the Hellespont, or no, neither can I decide
whether she of set purpose attacked his vessel, or whether
it merely chanced that the Calyndian ship came in her way,
but certain it is that she bore down upon his vessel and
sank it, and that thereby she had the good fortune to procure
herself a double advantage. For the commander of the
Athenian trireme, when he saw her bear down on one of
the enemy's fleet, thought immediately that her vessel was
a Greek, or else had deserted from the Persians, and was
now fighting on the Greek side ; he therefore gave up the
chase, and turned away to attack others.
Thus in the first place she saved her life by the action,
and was enabled to get clear off from the battle; while
further, it fell out that in the very act of doing the king an
injury she raised herself to a greater height than ever in his
esteem. For as Xerxes beheld the fight, he remarked (it is
said) the destruction of the vessel, whereupon the bystanders
observed to him " Seest thou, master, how well Artemisia
fights, and how she has just sunk a ship of the enemy ? "
Then Xerxes asked if it were really Artemisia's doing ; and
they answered, "Certainly; for they knew her ensign":
while all made sure that the sunken vessel belonged to the
opposite side. Everything, it is said, conspired to prosper
the queen it was especially fortunate for her that not one
of those on board the Calyndian ship survived to become her
accuser. Xerxes, they say, in reply to the remarks made
to him, observed "My men have behaved like women, my
women like men !"
188 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
Incidents of the Persian Disaster
There fell in this combat Ariabignes, one of the chief
commanders of the fleet, who was son of Darius and brother
of Xerxes ; and with .him perished a vast number of men of
high repute, Persians, Medes, and allies. Of the Greeks
there died only a few; for, as they were able to swim, all
those that were not slain outright by the enemy escaped
from the sinking vessels and swam across to Salamis. But
on the side of the barbarians more perished by drowning
than in any other way, since they did not know how to
swim. The great destruction took place when the ships
which had been first engaged began to fly; for they who
were stationed in the rear, anxious to display their valor
before the eyes of the king, made every effort to force their
way to the front, and thus became entangled with such of
their own vessels as were retreating.
In this confusion the following event occurred : Certain
Phoenicians belonging to the ships which had thus perished
made their appearance before the king, and laid the blame
of their loss on the lonians, declaring that they were traitors,
and had willfully destroyed the vessels. But the upshot of
this complaint was, that the Ionian captains escaped the
death which threatened them, while their Phoenician accusers
received death as their reward. For it happened that,
exactly as they spoke, a Samothracian vessel bore down on
an Athenian and sank it, but was attacked and crippled
immediately by one of the ^Eginetan squadron. Now the
Sarnothracians were expert with the javelin, and aimed their
weapons so well, that they cleared the deck of the vessel
which had disabled their own, after which they sprang on
board, and took it. This saved the lonians. Xerxes, when
he saw the exploit, turned fiercely on the Phoenicians (he
was ready, in his extreme vexation, to find fault with any
one) and ordered their heads to be cut off, to prevent
480 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS 189
them, he said, from casting the blame of their own miscon-
duct upon braver men. During the whole time of the battle
Xerxes sate at the base of the hill called JEgaleSs, over
against Salamis; and whenever he saw any of his own
captains perform any worthy exploit he inquired concerning
him ; and the man's name was taken down by his scribes,
together with the names of his father and his city.
When the rout of the barbarians began, and they sought
to make their escape to Phalrum, the JSginetans, awaiting
them in the channel, performed exploits worthy to be re-
corded. Through the whole of the confused struggle the
Athenians employed themselves in destroying such ships as
either made resistance or fled to shore, while the ^Eginetans
dealt with those which endeavored to escape down the
strait ; so that the Persian vessels were no sooner clear of
the Athenians than forthwith they fell into the hands of the
JEginetan squadron. Such of the barbarian vessels as es-
caped from the battle fled to Phalrum, and there sheltered
themselves under the protection of the land army.
The Greeks who gained the greatest glory of all in the
sea fight off Salaniis were the JBginetans, and after them
the Athenians. The individuals of most distinction were
Polycritus the JSginetan, and two Athenians, Eumenes of
Anagyrus, and Anieinias of PallSne ; the latter of whom had
pressed Artemisia so hard. And assuredly, if he had known
that the vessel carried Artemisia on board, he would never
have given over the chase till he had either succeeded in
taking her, or else been taken himself. For the Athenian
captains had received special orders touching the queen ;
and moreover a reward of ten thousand drachmas l had been
proclaimed for any one wjao should make her prisoner;
since there was great indignation felt that a woman should
appear in arms against Athens. However, as I said before,
she escaped ; and so did some others whose ships survived
i About $1800.
190 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
the engagement ; and these were all now assembled at the
port of Phalgrum.
In the midst of the confusion Aristides, son of Lysirna-
chus, the Athenian, of whom I lately spoke as a man of the
greatest excellence, performed the following service. He
took a number of the Athenian heavy-armed troops, who
had previously been stationed along the shore of Salamis,
and, landing with them on the islet of Psyttaleia, slew all
the Persians by whom it was occupied.
72. THE ANSWER THE ATHENIANS GAVE THE PERSIAN
ENVOY BEFORE THE BATTLE OF
Herodotus, took VEH, chap. 143
After the triumph at Salamis the spirit of the Athenians rose
higher than ever, as is evinced by the following.
The Athenians returned this answer to Alexander [king
of Macedon, who was acting as the Persian emissary, and
who had urged submission on very favorable terms] :
We know, as well as thou dost, that the power of the
Mede is many times greater than our own : we did not need
to have that cast in our teeth. Nevertheless, we cling so to
freedom that we shall offer what resistance we may. Seek
not to persuade us into making terms with the barbarian
say what thou wilt, thou wilt never gain our assent. Eeturn
rather at once, and tell Mardonius that our answer to him is
this : So long as the sun keeps his present course, we will
never join alliance with Xerxes. Nay, we shall oppose him
unceasingly, trusting in the aid of those gods and heroes
whom he has lightly esteemed, whose houses and whose
images he has burnt with fire/ And come not thou again
to us with words like these ; nor, thinking to do us a service,
persuade us to unholy actions."
479 B.C.] THE BATTLE OP PLAT^JA 191
73. THE BATTLE OF PLAT^A
Herodotus, book IX, chaps. 52-70
The battle of Plataea (479 B.C.) was won by the Lacedaemonian
and Athenian hoplites practically alone, without the aid of the very
motley host of allies from the smaller states. The difficulty seems
to have been to induce Mardonius to fight on ground favorable for
the evolutions of the Greek heavy infantry. He had been pursuing
a harassing policy, using his superior cavalry to cut off the Greeks'
supplies, and retreating within his fortified camp. To change this,
Pausanias and his allies resolved to retreat to the hills ; but the
movement was delayed in the night, and morning found the Greek
army scattered dangerouslv over the plain. It was then Mardonius
committed his blunder of underestimating the fighting power of the
Spartan and Athenian infantry alone, and hastened out to attack
them. Never was the Spartan discipline better vindicated than in
the spear-press at Platsea.
Having made these resolves, they continued during that
whole day to suffer beyond measure from the attacks of the
Persian horse. At length when towards dusk the attacks of
the horse ceased, and, night having closed in, the hour arrived
at which the army was to commence its retreat, the greater
number struck their tents and began the march towards the
rear. They were not minded, however, to make for the place
agreed upon ; but in their anxiety to escape from the Persian
horse, no sooner had they begun to move than they fled
straight to Plataea, where they took post at the temple of
Hera, which lies outside the city, at the distance of about
twenty furlongs from Gargaphia; and here they pitched
their camp in front of the sacred building.
As soon as Pausanias saw a portion of the troops in motion,
he issued orders to the Lacedaemonians to strike their tents
and follow those who had been the first to depart, supposing
that they were on their march to the place agreed upon. All
the captains but one were ready to obey his orders : Amom-
192 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
pharetus, however, the son of Poliadas, who was leader of
the Pitanate cohort, refused to move, saying, " He for one
would not fly from the strangers, or of his own will bring dis-
grace upon Sparta." It had happened that he was absent from
the former conference of the captains ; and so what was now
taking place astonished him. Pausanias and Euryanax
thought it a monstrous thing that Ainompharetus would not
hearken to them ; but considered that it would be yet more
monstrous, if, when he was so minded, they were to leave
the Pitanates to their fate ; seeing that, if they forsook them
to keep their agreement with the other Greeks, Ainompha-
retus and those with him might perish. On this account,
therefore, they kept the Lacedaemonian force in its place,
and made every endeavor to persuade Amompharetus that he
was wrong to act as he was doing.
The, Athenians halt on the March
While the Spartans were engaged in these efforts to turn
Amompharetus the only man unwilling to retreat either in
their own army or in that of the Tegeans the Athenians on
their side did as follows. Knowing that it was the Spartan,
temper to say one thing and do another, they remained quiet
in their station until the army began to retreat, when they
dispatched a horseman to see whether the Spartans really
meant to set forth, or whether after all they had no intention,
of moving. The horseman was also to ask Pausanias what
he wished the Athenians to do.
The herald on his arrival found the Lacedaemonians
drawn up in their old position, and their leaders quarreling
with one another. Pausanias and Euryanax had gone on
urging Amompharetus not to endanger the lives of his men
by staying behind while the others drew off, but without
succeeding in persuading him ; until at l?t the dispute had
waxed hot between them just at the moment when the
Athenian herald arrived* At this point Amompharetus,
479 B.C.] THE BATTLE OP PLATJEA 193
who was still disputing, took up with both his hands a vast
rock, and placed it at the feet of Pausanias, saying " With
this pebble I give nay vote not to run away from the stran-
gers." [By " strangers " he meant barbarians.] Pausanias,
in reply, called him a fool and a madman, and, turning to
the Athenian herald, who had made the inquiries with which
he was charged, bade him tell his countrymen how he was
occupied, and ask them to approach nearer, and retreat or
not according to the movements of the Spartans.
Pausanias at last falls Back
So the herald went back to the Athenians ; and the Spartans
continued to dispute till morning began to dawn upon them.
Then Pausanias, who as yet had not moved, gave the signal
for retreat expecting (and rightly, as the event proved)
that Amompharetus, when he saw the rest of the Lacedserno
nians in motion, would be unwilling to be left behind. No
sooner was the signal given than all the army except the
Pitanates began their march, and retreated along the line of
the hills, the Tegeans accompanying them. The Athenians
likewise set off in good order, but proceeded by a different
way from the Lacedaemonians. For while the latter clung
to the hilly ground and the skirts of Mount Cithseron, on ac-
count of the fear which they entertained of the enemy's horse,
the former betook themselves to the low country and marched
through the plain.
As for Amompharetus, at first he diet not believe that
Pausanias would really dare to leave him behind ; he there-
fore remained firm in his resolve to keep his men at their
post ; when, however, Pausanias and his troops were now
some way off, Amompharetus, thinking himself forsaken in
good earnest, ordered his band to take their arms, and led
them at a walk towards the main army. Now the army
was waiting for them at a distance of about ten furlongs,
having halted upon the river Moloies at a place called Agri-
194 THE PERIL PROM PERSIA
opius, where stands a temple of the Eleusinian Demetei.
They had stopped here, that, in case Amompharetus and his
band should refuse to quit the spot where they were drawn
up, and should really not stir from it, they might have it
in their power to move back and lend them assistance.
Amompharetus, however, and his companions rejoined the
main body ; and at the same time the whole mass of the
barbarian cavalry arrived and began to press hard upon
them. The horsemen had followed their usual practice and
ridden up to the Greek camp, when they discovered that
the place where the Greeks had been posted hitherto was
deserted. Hereupon they pushed forward without stopping,
and, as soon as they overtook the enemy, pressed heavily
on them.
Mardonius falls on the Spartans
Mardonius, when he heard that the Greeks had retired
under cover of the night, and beheld the place where they
had been stationed, empty, crossed the Asdpus, and led the
Persians forward at a run directly upon the track of the
Greeks, whom he believed to be in actual flight. He could
not see the Athenians ; for as they had taken the way of
the plain, they were hidden from his sight by the hills ; he
therefore led on his troops against the Lacedaemonians and
the Tegeans only. When the commanders of the other
divisions of the barbarians saw the Persians pursuing the
Greeks so hastily, they all forthwith seized their standards,
and hurried after at their best speed in great disorder and
disarray. On they went with loud shouts and in a wild
rout, thinking to swallow up the runaways.
Meanwhile Pausanias had sent a horseman to the Athe-
nians, at the time when the cavalry first fell upon him,
[begging for their immediate help since the other allied
Greeks were far to the rear].
The Athenians, as soon as they received this message.
470 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF PLATJEA 195
were anxious to go to the aid of the Spartans, and to help
them to the uttermost of their power; but, as they were
upon the march, the Greeks on the king's side, whose place
in the line had been opposite theirs, fell upon them, and so
harassed them by their attacks that it was not possible for
them to give the succor they desired. Accordingly the
Lacedaemonians, and the Tegeans whom nothing could
induce to quit their side were left alone to resist the
Persians. Including the light-armed, the number of the
former was 50,000,* while that of the Tegeans was 3000.
Now, therefore, as they were about to engage with Mardo-
nius and the troops under him, they made ready to offer
sacrifice. The victims, however, for some time were not
favorable ; and, during the delay, many fell on the Spartan
side, and a still greater number were wounded. For the
Persians had made a rampart of their wicker shields, and
shot from behind them such clouds of arrows that the Spar-
tans were sorely distressed. The victims continued unpro-
pitious ; till at last Pausanias raised his eyes to the Heraeum
of the Plataeans, and calling the goddess to his aid, besought
her not to disappoint the hopes of the Greeks.
Pausanias overthrows the Persians
As he offered his prayer, the Tegeans, advancing before
the rest, rushed forward against the enemy ; and the Lace-
daemonians, who had obtained favorable omens the moment
that Pausanias prayed, at length, after their long delay, ad-
vanced to the attack 5 while the Persians, on their side, left
shooting, and prepared to meet them. And first the combat
was at the wicker shields. Afterwards, when these were
1 If we accept the estimates given elsewhere in Herodotus, the bulk of
the Spartan force was made up of the light-armed Helots of very little
value in actual battle. Pausanias seems to have had only 10,000 Lacedae-
monian hoplites behind him in this last desperate grapple for the life or
death of Hellas.
196 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
swept down, a fierce contest took place by the side of the
temple of Demeter, which lasted long, and ended in a hand-
to-hand struggle. The barbarians many times seized hold
of the Greek spears and brake them 5 for in boldness and
warlike spirit the Persians were not a whit inferior to the
Greeks; but they were without bucklers, untrained, and
far below the enemy in respect of skill in arms. Sometimes
singly, sometimes in bodies of ten, now fewer and now more
in number, they dashed forward upon the Spartan ranks,
and so perished.
The fight went most against the Greeks, where Mardo-
nius, mounted upon a white horse, and surrounded by the
bravest of all the Persians, the thousand picked men, fought
in person. So long as Mardonius was alive, this body re-
sisted all attacks, and, while they defended their own lives,
struck down no small number of Spartans ; but after Mar-
donius fell, and the troops with him, which were the main
strength of the army, perished, the remainder yielded to
the Lacedaemonians, and took to flight. Their light cloth-
ing, and want of bucklers, were of the greatest hurt to
them; for they had to contend against men heavily
armed, while they themselves were without any such
defense.
Then did Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus, and grand-
son of Anaxanclridas (I omit to recount his other ancestors,
since they are the same with those of Leonidas), win a
victory exceeding in glory all those to which our knowledge
extends.
The Persians, as soon as they were put to flight by the
Lacedaemonians, ran hastily away, without preserving any
order, and took refuge in their own camp, within the wooden
defense which they had raised in the Theban territory.
[The Persian rear guard under Artabazus never came into ac-
tion at all, but saved itself by a precipitate retreat to the Helles-
pont and Asia.]
479 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF PLAT^BA 197
As for the Greeks upon the king's side, while most of
them played the coward purposely, the Boeotians, on the
contrary, had a long struggle with the Athenians. Those
of the Thebans who were attached to the Medes, displayed
especially no little zeal ; far from playing the coward, they
fought with such fury that three hundred of the best and
bravest among them were slain by the Athenians in this
passage of arms. But at last they, too, were routed, and fled
away not, however, in the same direction as the Persians
and the crowd of allies, who, having taken no part in the
battle, ran off without striking a blow but to the city of
Thebes.
The Storming of the Camp
The Persians, and the multitude with them, who fled to
the wooden fortress, were able to ascend into the towers be-
fore the Lacedaemonians came up. Thus placed, they pro-
ceeded to strengthen the defenses as well as they could ;
and when the Lacedaemonians arrived, a sharp fight took
place at the rampart. So long as the Athenians were away,
the barbarians kept off their assailants, and had much the
best of the combat, since the Lacedaemonians were unskilled
in the attack of walled places, 1 but on the arrival of the
Athenians, a more violent assault was made, and the wall
was for a long time attacked with fury. In the end the
valor of the Athenians and their perseverance prevailed
they gained the top of the wall, and, breaking a breach
through it, enabled the Greeks to pour in. The first to
enter here were the Tegeans, and they it was who plundered
the tent of Mardonius, where among other booty, they found
the manger from which his horses ate, all made of solid brass,
and well worth looking at. As soon as the wall was broken
down, the barbarians no longer kept together in any array,
iThe inability to conduct sieges is one of the most striking features of
the Spartan military character. The Athenian skill contrasted remark-
ably with the Spartan inefficiency.
198 THE PERIL FROM PERSIA
nor was there one among them who thought of making fur
ther resistance in good truth, they were all half dead with
fright, huddled as so many thousands were into so narrow
and confined a space. With such tameness did they sub-
mit to be slaughtered by the Greeks, that of the 300,000
men who composed the army omitting the 40,000 by
whom Artabazus was accompanied in his flight no more
than 3000 outlived the battle. 1 Of the Lacedaemonians from
Sparta there perished in this combat ninety-one ; of the Te-
geans, sixteen ; of the Athenians, fifty-two.
1 Rational criticism of course reduces the proportions of this horrible
slaughter. It is improbable- that Mardonius ever had 300,000 men : and
extremely likely that a great many Asiatics escaped homeward, as
scattered fugitives.
CHAPTER VII
THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
The Persian War left its legacy in the vigor, pride, and
triumphant enthusiasm which it infused into Athens. Part of this
energy expended itself in military conquest ; a still krger part
found its realization in artistic, literary, and intellectual achieve-
ments such as no later people, however numerous, have equaled
within anything like the same interval of time. To select passages
from the ancient authors to illustrate " The Age of Pericles " and
the years which preceded it and followed, has proved highly
difficult so much of prime value must in any case "be omitted.
In this chapter the first set of extracts pertains to the rise of
the Athenian Empire ; then follow a few readings from the master
historian Thucydides to illustrate the nicely poised vigor of his
style as distinguished from the charming garrulity of Herodotus,
and also to illumine a few notable incidents in that fateful
Peloponnesian War in which the imperial glory of Athens was
shipwrecked. Finally there are included a number of passages
from various quarters illustrating the civic, intellectual, and private
activities of the Athenians at the time their civilization was at its
height. Some of these passages relate to the fourth century B.C.,
but conditions usually were not so altered as to render them value-
less also for understanding the fifth century.
74. THE MANNERS AND PERSONAL TRAITS OF CIMON
Plutarch, " Life of Cimon," chaps. X-XI
After the great Persian invasion, and especially following the
death of Aristides and the waning of the influence of Themistocles,
the leading public man of Athens for some time was undoubtedly
199
200 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
Oimon, the son of Miltiades, the victor of Marathon. Although
by no means an ideal leader, he long kept the hearts of the Athe-
nian people, thanks to his brilliant campaigns against the Persians.
The rise to prominence of Pericles, and the growth of an intense
jealousy between Athens and Sparta, despite the fact that Cimon
had done everything possible to promote their friendship, at
length undermined his influence.
Cimon grew rich, and what he gained from the barbarians
with honor, he spent yet more honorably upon the citizens.
For he pulled down all the inclosures of bis gardens and
grounds, that strangers, and the needy of his fellow citizens,
might gather of his fruits freely. At home, he kept a table,
plain, but sufficient for a considerable number, to which
any poor townsman had free access, and so might support
himself without labor, with his whole time left free for
public duties. Aristotle states, however, that this reception
did not extend to all the Athenians, but only to his own
fellow townsmen, the Laciadae. 1 Besides this, he always
went attended by two or three young companions, very well
clad ; and if he met with an elderly citizen in a poor habit,
one of these would change clothes with the decayed citizen,
which was looked upon as very nobly done. He enjoined
them, likewise, to carry a considerable quantity of coin
about them, which they were to convey silently into the
hands of the better class of poor men, as they stood by them
in the market place. . . .
But Cimon's generosity outdid all the old Athenian hos-
pitality and good nature. For though it is the city's boast
that their forefathers taught the rest of Greece to sow corn,
and how to use springs of water, and to kindle fire, yet
Cimon, by keeping open house for his fellow citizens, and
giving travelers liberty to eat the fruits which the several
seasons produced in bis land, seemed to restore to the world
that community of goods which mythology says existed in
i Cimon appears to have belonged to the " deme " or township of Lacia.
470 B.C.] CIMON 201
the reign of Saturn. Those who object to him that he did
this to be popular, and gain the applause of the vulgar, are
confuted by the constant tenor of the rest of his actions,
which all tended to uphold the interests of the nobility and
the Spartan policy, of which he gave instances, when, together
with Aristides, he opposed Theinistocles, who was advancing
the authority of the people beyond its just limits, and re-
sisted Ephialtes, who, to please the multitude, was for abol-
ishing the jurisdiction of the court of Areopagus. And
when all of his time, except Aristides and Ephialtes, en-
riched themselves out of the public money, he still kept his
hands clean and untainted, and to his last day never acted
or spoke for his own private gain or emolument. They tell
us that Ehcesaces, a Persian, who had traitorously revolted
from the king his master, fled to Athens, and there, being
harassed by sycophants, who were still accusing him to the
people, he applied himself to Cimon for redress, and, to gain
his favor, laid down in his doorway two cups, the one full
of gold, and the other of silver darics. Cimon smiled and
asked him whether he wished to have Cimon's hired service
or his friendship. He replied, his friendship. " If so," said
he, " take- away these pieces, for being your friend, when I
shall have occasion for them, I will send and ask for them."
The allies of the Athenians l began now to be weary of
war and military service, willing to have repose, and to
look after their husbandry and traffic. For they saw their
enemies driven out of the country, and did not fear any
new vexations from them. They still paid the tax they
were assessed at, but did not send men and galleys, as they
had done before. This the other Athenian generals wished
to constrain them to, and by judicial proceedings against
defaulters, and penalties which they inflicted on them,
i The lonians, Islanders, etc., who had joined the " Delian Confederacy "
under the leadership of Athens for defense against Persia (founded 478
or 477 B.C.).
202 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
made the government uneasy, and even odious. But Cimon
practiced a contrary method ; he forced no man to go that
was not willing, but of those that desired to be excused
from service he took money and vessels unmanned, and
let them yield to the temptation of staying at home, to
attend to their private business. Thus they lost their
military habits, and luxury and their own folly quickly
changed them into un warlike husbandmen and traders;
while Cimon, continually embarking large numbers of
Athenians on board his galleys, thoroughly disciplined
them in his expeditions, and ere long made them the lords
of their own paymasters. The allies, whose indolence main-
tained them, while they thus went sailing about everywhere,
and incessantly bearing arms and acquiring skill, began to
fear and natter them, and found themselves after a while allies
no longer, but unwittingly become tributaries and slaves.
75. THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT
Thucydides, book I, chaps. 103-113. Jowetf s Translation
From 479 to 431 B.C. the power of Athens was at its height.
This was the glorious age, when the Athenian people, quickened
in all their free energies by the consciousness of triumph over
Persia, went from one great deed to another. Considering the
rare fruits to civilization produced by this "Age of Pericles"
it is remarkable how little we know of some phases of the political
and military history of Athens during this most important period.
The following is part of a brief sketch prepared by Thucydides,
introductory to his long story of the Peloponuesian War. It
covers the years 459 to 449, the period of the greatest Athe-
nian activity.
The Athenians .obtained the alliance of the Megarians,
who revolted from the Lacedaemonians x because the Corin-
* The Megarians seem to have quitted their Spartan alliance because
the Spartans would not check the Corinthians ; and therefore they sought
the help oi Athens.
459-458 B.C.] THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT 203
thians were pressing them hard in a war arising out of a
question of frontiers. Thus they gained both Megara and
Pagse [on the Corinthian Gulf]; and they built for the
Megarians the Long Walls extending from the city to the
port of Nisaea, which they garrisoned themselves. This
was the original and the main cause of the intense hatred
which the Corinthians entertained towards the Athenians.
Meantime, Inaros, [a petty king in Libya, raised Egypt
in revolt against Persia] and called in the Athenians. They
were just then carrying on war against Cyprus with 200
ships of their own and their allies ; and quitting the island
they went to his aid. They sailed from the sea into the
Kile, and getting possession of two thirds of Memphis,
proceeded to attack the remaining part called the White
Castle, in which the Persians and Medes had taken refuge,
and with them such Egyptians as had not joined in the
revolt.
The Athenians war ivith the Peloponnesians
An Athenian fleet made a descent on Halieis [on the
coast of Argolis] where a battle took place against some
Corinthian and Epidaurian troops : the Corinthians gained
the victory. Soon afterwards the Athenians fought at sea
off Cecryphaleia with a Peloponnesian fleet, which they de-
feated. A war next broke^ out between the JSginetans and
Athenians, and a great battle was fought off the coast of
JSgina in which the allies of both parties joined. The
Athenians were victorious, and captured 70 of the enemy's
ships : then they landed on JSgina, and under the command
of Leocrates, the son of Stroebus, besieged the town. There-
upon the Peloponnesians sent over to the assistance of
the JEginetans, 300 hoplites who had previously been
assisting the Corinthians and Epidaurians. The Corin-
thians seized the heights of Geraneia and thence made a
descent with their allies into the Megarian territory, think-
204 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
ing the Athenians, who had so large a force absent in
^)gina and in Egypt, would be unable to assist the Mega-
rians, or, if they did, would be obliged to raise the siege
of JEgina. But the Athenians without moving their army
from JSgina, sent to Megara, under the command of My-
ronides, a force consisting of their oldest and youngest men,
who had remained at home. A battle was fought which
hung equally in the balance. When. the two armies separ
rated, they both thought they had gained the victory. The
Athenians, however, did get rather the better, and, on the
departure of the Corinthians, erected a trophy. [And
when the Corinthians joined battle with the Athenians
a second time, they were still more decisively defeated.]
About this time the Athenians began to build their " Long
Walls " extending to the sea, one to the harbor of Phalerum,
the other to the Peirseus ... [At this time, too, a Spartan
force was sent into Central Greece to assist the Dorians 1
of that region against the Phocians. On their way back
some Athenians disaffected with the democracy induced
them to attack Attica. The Athenians met the invaders at
Tanagra in Boeotia] and the Lacedaemonians and their allies,
after great slaughter on both sides, gained the victory. They
then marched into Megarian territory, and, cutting down
fruit trees, returned home. . . .
The Athenians gain -Power in Boeotia
However, on the 62d day after the battle, the Athenians
made another expedition into Boeotia under the command
of Myronides, and there was a battle at (Enophyta, in which
they defeated the Boeotians and became masters of Boeotia
and Phocis. They pulled down the walls of Tanagra, and
took as hostages from the Opuntian Locrians, 100 of their
richest citizens. They then completed their own "Long
Walls." Soon afterward the JSginetans came to terms with
1 The petty tribe whence the Peloponnesian Dorians claimed origin.
454 B.C.] THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT 205
the Athenians, dismantling their walls, surrendering their
ships, and agreeing to pay tribute for the future. The
Athenians under the command of Tolmides, the son of
Tolmseus, sailed around the Peloponnesus and burned the
Lacedaemonian dockyard [at Cythium]. They also took the
Corinthian town of Chalcis, 1 and making a raid on Sicyon,
defeated a Sicyonian force.
The Egyptian Expedition Fails
The Athenians and their allies were still in Egypt where
they carried on the war with varying fortune. At first they
were masters of the country. The king [of Persia] sent to
Lacedeemon, Megabazus, a Persian, who was well supplied
with money, in hope that he might persuade the Pelopon-
nesians to invade Attica, and so draw off the Athenians
from Egypt. He had no success; the money was being
spent, and nothing done, 2 so with what remained of it he
found his way back to Asia. The king then sent into Egypt
[another] Megabazus, the son of Zopyrus, a Persian, who
marched overland with a large army and defeated the
Egyptians and their allies. He drove the Hellenes oat of
Memphis, and finally shut them up in the island of Proso-
phis [in the Nile], where he blockaded them during eighteen
months. At length he drained the canal and diverted the
water, thus leaving their ships high and dry and joining
nearly the whole island to the mainland. He then crossed
over with a land force, and took the island.
[Thus], after six years' fighting the cause of the Hel-
lenes [in Egypt] was lost. A few survivors of their great
army found their way through Libya to Cyrene ; by far the
larger number perished. Fifty additional triremes which
had been sent by the Athenians and their allies to relieve
1 A small town in .SStolia, not the greater Euboean Chalcis.
2 The Spartan magnates seem to have taken the bribes readily, bat were
not yet prepared to betray Hellas.
206 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
the other forces, in ignorance of what had happened, sailed
into the Mendesian mouth of the Nile. But they were at
once attacked both from the land and from the sea, and the
greater part were destroyed by the Phoenician fleet, a few
ships only escaping. Thus ended the great Egyptian ex-
pedition of the Athenians and their allies. 1
Athens makes a Trace tvith the, Peloponnesians
A short time afterward 1000 Athenians under the com-
mand of Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, embarking on board
the fleet which they had at Pagse, now in their possession,
coasted along to Sicyon, and there landing defeated the
Sicyonians who came out to meet them. With the least
possible delay, taking on board Achaean troops and sailing
to the opposite coast they attacked and besieged (Eniadse, a
town of Acarnania; but they failed to reduce it and re-
turned home.
After an interval of three years, a five years' truce was
concluded between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians.
The Athenians now abstained from war in Hellas itself, but
made an expedition to Cyprus, with 200 ships of their own
and of their allies, under the command of Oimon : 60 ships
were detached from the armament and sailed to Egypt, at
the request of Amyrtaeus, king of the fens [in the Nile
delta], the remainder proceeded to blockade Citium [in
Cyprus]. Here Cimon died and a famine arose in the
country : so the fleet quitted Citium. Arriving off Salainis
in Cyprus they fought at sea and also on land with Phoeni-
cian and Cilician forces. Gaining a victory in both engage-
ments, they returned home, accompanied by the ships which
had gone out with them and had now come back from Egypt.
1 It is a great misfortune we have not a more complete account of this
highly romantic attempt of the Athenians to establish their power in
Egypt. The man and money they wasted on this expedition might have
insured their supremacy in Greece Proper, if kept at home.
445-431 B.C.] PERICLES BEAUTIFIES ATHENS 207
After this the Lacedaemonians engaged in the so-called
" Sacred War," and took possession of the temple of Delphi,
which they handed over to the Delphians. But no sooner
had they retired than the Athenians sent an expedition and
recovered the temple, which they handed over to the Pho-
cians. [The Athenian power both by land and sea was
now at its height, but very soon their power on land began
to decline.]
76. How PERICLES BEAUTIFIED ATHENS
Plutarch, " Life of Pericles," chap. XI ff.
Pericles's twofold task was to make Athens the leading city of
Hellas in all the arts and activities of peace, as well as to make
her preeminent in naval and military power. In the second
undertaking he met with only temporary success. In the first he
prospered perhaps beyond his expectations.
He was a great "Demagogue " (i.e. leader of the people) in the
good sense of the term, resting his power on the popular will, but
never descending to ignoble means to court it. How he used his
influence to extend the prosperity of Athens and to make her the
most beautiful city in Hellas is told in this well-known passage
from Plutarch.
[Pericles as leader of the Democratic element in Athens,
and Cimon, the Aristocratic leader, were always contend-
ing for power, and] the open rivalry and contention of
these two opponents made the gash deep, and severed the
city into the two parties of the people and the few. And so
Pericles, at that time more than at any other, let loose the
reins to the " People," and made his policy subservient to
their pleasure, contriving continually to have some great
public show or solemnity, some banquet, or some procession
or other in the town to please them, coaxing his country-
men like children, with such delights and pleasures as were
not, however, unedifying. Besides that every year he sent
208 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
out threescore galleys, on board of which there wenl
numbers of the citizens, who were in pay eight months,
learning at the same time and practicing the art of sea-
manship.
He sent, moreover, a thousand of them into the Cher-
sonese as planters, to share the land among them by lot, and
five hundred more into the isle of Naxos, and half that
number to Andros, a thousand into Thrace to dwell among
the Bisaltae, and others into Italy, when the city Sybaris,
which now was called Thurii, was to be repeopled. And
this he did to ease and discharge the city of an idle, and, by
reason of their idleness, a busy, meddling crowd of people ;
and at the same time to meet the necessities and restore the
fortunes of the poor townsmen, and to intimidate, also, and
check their allies from attempting any change, by posting
such garrisons, as it were, in the midst of them.
That which gave most pleasure and ornament to -the city
of Athens, and the greatest admiration and even astonish-
ment to all strangers, and that which now is Greece's only
evidence that the power she boasts of and her ancient wealth
are no romance or idle story, was his construction of the
public and sacred buildings. Yet this was that of all his
actions in the government which his 'enemies most looked
askance upon and caviled at in the popular assemblies,
crying out how that the commonwealth* of Athens had lost
its reputation and was ill-spoken of abroad for removing
the common treasure of the Greeks from the isle of Delos
into their own custody ; and how that their fairest excuse
for so doing, namely, that they took it away for fear the
barbarians should seize it, and on purpose to secure it in a
safe place, this Pericles had made unavailable, and how
that " Greece cannot but resent it as an insufferable affront,
and consider herself to be tyrannized over openly, when she
sees the treasure, which was contributed by her upon a
necessity for the war, wantonly lavished out by us upon our
445-431 B.C.] PERICLES BEAUTIFIES ATHENS 209
city, to gild her all over, and to adorn and set her forth, as
it were some vain woman, hung round with precious stones
and figures and temples, which cost a wqrld of money."
How Pericles justified his Building Policy
Pericles, on the other hand, informed the people that
they were in no way obliged to give any account of those
moneys to their allies, so long as they maintained their
defense, and kept off the barbarians from attacking them ;
while in the meantime they did not so much as supply one
horse or man or ship, but only found money for the service ;
" which money," said he, " is not theirs that give it, but
theirs that receive it, if so be they perform the conditions
upon which they receive it." And that it was good reason,
that, now the city was sufficiently provided and stored
with all things necessary for the "war, they should convert
the overplus of its wealth to such undertakings as would
hereafter, when completed, give them eternal honor, and, for
the present, while in process, freely supply all the inhabit-
ants with plenty. With their variety of workmanship and
of occasions for service, which summon all arts and trades
and require all hands to be employed about them, they do
actually put the whole city, in a manner, into state pay ;
while at the same time she is both beautified and maintained
by herself. For as those who are of age and strength for war
are provided for and maintained in the armaments abroad
by their pay out of the public stock, so, it being his desire and
design that the undisciplined mechanic multitude that stayed
at home should not go without their share of public sal-
aries, and yet should not have them given them for sitting,
still and doing nothing, to that end he thought fit to bring
in among them, with the approbation of the people, these
vast projects of buildings and designs of works, that would
be of some continuance before they were finished, and would
give employment to numerous arts, so that the part of the
210 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
people that stayed at home might, no less than those that
were at sea or in garrisons or on expeditions, have a fair
and just occasion of receiving the benefit and having their
share of the public moneys.
The Great Commercial Activity in Athens, thanks to Pericles } s
Policy
The materials were stone, brass, ivory, gold, ebony, Cyprus
wood; and the arts or trades that wrought and fashioned
them were smiths and carpenters, molders, founders and
braziers, stonecutters, dyers, goldsmiths, ivory workers,
painters, embroiderers, turners ; those again that conveyed
them to the town for use, merchants and mariners and ship-
masters by sea, and by land, cartwrights, cattle breed-
ers, wagoners, ropemakers, flaxworkers, shoemakers and
leather dressers, road makers, miners. And every trade in
the same nature, as a captain in an army has his particular
company of soldiers under him, had its own hired company
of journeymen and laborers belonging to it banded together
as in array, to be as it were the instrument and body for the
performance of the service. Thus, to say all in a word, the
occasions and services of these public works distributed
plenty through every age and condition.
As then grew the works up, no less stately in size than
exquisite in form, the workmen striving to outvie the
material and the design with the beauty of their workman-
ship, yet the most wonderful thing of -all was the rapidity
of their execution. Undertakings any one of which singly
might have required, they thought, for their completion,
several successions and ages of men, were every one of them
accomplished in the height and prime of one man's political
service. There is a sort of bloom of newness upon those
works of his, preserving them from the touch of time, as if
they had some perennial spirit and undying vitality mingled
in the composition of them.
445-431 B.C.] PERICLES BEAUTIFIES ATHENS 211
Phidias and other Helpers of Perides
Phidias had the oversight of all the works, and was sur-
veyor-general, though upon the various portions other great
masters and workmen were employed. Tor Callicrates and
Ictinus built the Parthenon ; the chapel at Eleusis, where
the mysteries were celebrated, was begun by Coroebus, who
erected the pillars that stand upon the floor or pavement,
and joined them to the architraves: and after his death
Metagenes of Xypete added the frieze and the upper line of
columns ; Xenocles of Cholargus roofed or arched the lantern
on the top of the temple of Castor and Polydeuces ; and the
long wall, which Socrates says he himself heard Pericles
propose to the people, was undertaken by Callicrates. This
work Cratinus ridicules, as long in finishing,
" 'Tis long since Pericles, if words would do it,
Talk'd up the wall ; yet adds not one mite to it."
The Odeum, or music room, which in its interior was full
of seats and ranges of pillars, and outside had its roof made
to slope and descend from one single point at the top, was
constructed, we are told, in imitation of the king of Persia's
Pavilion; this likewise by Pericles's order; which Cratinus
again, in his comedy called " The Thracian Women/ 5 made
an occasion of raillery,
" So, we see here,
Zeus Long-pate Pericles appear,
Since ostracism time, he's laid aside his head,
And wears the new Odeum in its stead. 9 '
TJie Propylcea
The Propylsea, or entrances to the Acropolis, were finished
in five years' time, Mnesicles being the principal architect.
A strange accident happened in the course of building, which
showed that the goddess was not averse to the work, but
was aiding and cooperating to bring it to perfection. One
212 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
of the artificers, the quickest and the handiest workman
among them all, with a slip of his foot fell down from a
great height, and lay in a miserable condition, the physicians
having no hopes of his recovery. When Pericles was in
distress about this, Athens appeared to him at night in a
dream, and ordered a course of treatment, which he applied,
and in a short time and with great ease cured the man.
And upon this occasion it was that he set up a brass statue
of Athene, surnamed Health, in the citadel near the altar,
which they say was there before. But it was Phidias who
wrought the goddess's image in gold, and he has his name
inscribed on the pedestal as the workman of it ; and indeed
the whole work in a manner was under his charge, and he
had, as we have said already, the oversight over all the
artists and workmen, through Pericles's friendship for him.
77. THE CORINTHIANS CONTRAST THE ATHENIAN AND
SPARTAN TEMPERAMENTS
Thucydides, book I, chaps. 69-71. Jowett's Translation
In 432 B.C. the envoys of Corinth came to Sparta to urge her to
avenge the wrongs alleged to have been inflicted by Athens upon
their city. Thucydides takes the occasion to put into the mouths
of the Corinthians a remarkable speech, in which they tell the
Lacedaemonians many home truths, and point out clearly why
Sparta was losing the hegemony of Greece. It must be borne in
mind that all the praise here given Athens is supposed to have
been spoken by her bitterest enemies. The effectiveness of the
tribute is thereby more than doubled.
[You Lacedaemonians have allowed Athens to develop her
power, and have sat idly by while your own power was in
danger.] Of all Hellenes, Lacedaemonians, you are the
only people who never do anything. On the approach of an
enemy you are content to defend yourself against him, not
by acts, but by intentions, and seek to overthrow him not in
432 B.C.] ATHENS AND SPARTA CONTRASTED 213
the infancy but in the fullness of his strength. How came
you to be considered safe ? That reputation of yours was
never justified by facts. We know that the Persian made
his way from the ends of the earth before you encountered
him in a worthy manner ; and now you are blind to the do-
ings of the Athenians, who are not at a distance as he was,
but close at hand.
Have you never considered what manner of men these
Athenians are with whom you will have to fight, and how
utterly unlike yourselves ? They are revolutionary, quick
in the conception and in the execution of every new plan ;
while you are conservative careful only to keep what you
have, originating nothing, and not acting even when action
is necessary. They are bold beyond their strength ; they
run risks which prudence would condemn; in the midst of
misfortune they are full of hope. Whereas it is your nature,
though strong, to act feebly; when your plans are most
prudent to distrust them, and when calamities befall to
think you will never be delivered from them. They are im-
petuous, and you are dilatory ; they are always abroad, and
you are always at home. For they hope to gain something
by leaving their homes, but you are afraid that any new
enterprise will imperil what you have already. When con-
querors they pursue their victory to the uttermost ; when
defeated they fall back the least.
Their bodies they devote to their country as though they
belonged to other men. TJieir true self is their mind, which
is most truly their own when employed in her service.
When they do not carry out an intention which they have
formed, they seem to have sustained a personal bereavement :
when an enterprise succeeds they have gained a mere install-
ment of what is to come ; but if they fail they at once con-
ceive new hopes and so fill up the void. With them alone,
to hope is to have, for they lose not a moment in the execu-
tion of an idea. This is the lifelong task, full of toil and
214 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
danger, which they are always imposing upon themselves*
None enjoy their good things less, because they are always
seeking for more. To do their duty is their only holiday, and
they deem the quiet of inaction to be as disagreeable as the
most tiresome business. If a man should say of them in a
word, that they were born neither to have peace themselves,
nor to allow peace to others, he would simply speak the truth.
In the face of such an enemy, Lacedaemonians, you per-
sist in doing nothing. . . . [Your policy of inaction] would
hardly be successful, even if your neighbors were like your-
selves, and in the present case, as we pointed out just now,
your ways as compared with theirs are old-fashioned.
. . . [Therefore act promptly], and we will remain your
friends if you choose to bestir yourselves. . . . Take heed
then ; you have inherited from your fathers the leadership
of the Peloponnesus : see that her greatness suffers no dim-
inution at your hands.
78. THTJCYDIDES'S ESTIMATE OP PERICLES AND HIS
POLICY
Thucydides, book H, chap. 65. Jowetf s Translation
Pericles had been the leader of the Athenian democracy for over
thirty years when he died in 429 B.O. Most of the time he
wielded the power of an uncrowned king, thanks to his ability to
command the majority of the voters in the Ecclesia. The judg-
ment which Thucydides passes upon his abilities and character has
been ratified by later history. Pericles might have postponed the
Peloponnesian War by divers concessions, but he believed it inevi-
table, and allowed Sparta to force the issue. He was entirely jus-
tified in believing that Athens would emerge victorious if she ad-
hered to a strictly defensive policy.
Pericles survived the commencement of hostilities two
yeai:s and six months, and, after his death, his foresight
was even better appreciated than during his life. For he
460 B.C.] CONSTITUTION OF ERYTERJS 215
had told the Athenians that if they -would be patient and
attend to their navy, and not seek to enlarge their dominions
while the war was going on, nor imperil the existence of the
city, they would be victorious, [but after his death private
ambition and interest led them into policies which were
ruinous . . . ]. The reason of the difference was that he,
deriving authority from his capacity and acknowledged
worth, being also a man of transparent integrity, was able
to control the multitude in a free spirit ; he led them rather
than was led by them ; for, not seeking power by dishonest
arts, he had no need to say pleasant things, but on the
strength of his own high character could venture to oppose
and even to anger them. When he saw them unseasonably
elated and arrogant, his words humbled and awed them;
and, when they were depressed by groundless fears, he
sought to reanimate their confidence. Thus Athens, though
still in name a democracy r , was in fact ruled by her greatest
citizen.
His successors, however, were more on equality one with
another, and each one struggled to be first himself; they
were then ready to sacrifice the whole conduct of affairs to
the whim of the people. Even when later Cyrus, son of the
Great King, joined against them, they were at last over-
thrown not by their enemies, but by themselves, and their
own internal dissensions. So that at the time Pericles was
more than justified in the conviction at which his foresight
had arrived, that the Athenians would win an easy victory
over the unaided forces of the Peloponnesians.
79. CONSTITUTION OF EBYTHB^I
Inscription. Date about 460-450 B.C.
This inscription gives us considerable information as to the
kind of " Democracies " Athens set up in the vassal cities of her
Empire. Notice that this constitution is voted by the Athenian
216 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
Assembly and imposed by it on Erythrae (a town of considerable
importance in Ionia) : according to accepted Greek notions this
interference of one polis in the affairs of another was highly " ty-
rannical"
[Some earlier lines illegible, probably relating to the time and
manner when the decree was passed in the Athenian Ecclesia.]
The Erythrseans shall bring to the greater festival of Di-
onysus [at Athens] offerings of not less than three minse in
value (about $54.00). The ten Magistrates of the Sacrifices
shall portion out the meat to the Erythraeans who are present,
a drachma's worth being given to each. If the sacrificial
animals are acceptable, but below the stipulated three minae
in value, the official Cattle-Buyers shall purchase oxen for
the sacrifice, and charge the cost to the Erythraean people,
and any one desiring may feast thereon.
The Boule of the folk of Erythrae shall comprise 120
men, chosen by lot [lit. by beans]. The persons so selected
by lot shall be scrutinized as to his qualifications by the
[preceding] Boule. No one shall serve on the Boule, if he
is under thirty years of age. Whoever violates this law is
subject to prosecution, and if convicted is ineligible for
choice to the Boule for four years. 1 The Overseers [of
the new colony] and the Captain of the Guard shall at the
outset select the Boule by lot and induct it into office. But
in the future the Boule itself and the Captain of the Guard
shall do this. Each member, ere taking office, shall swear
by Zeus and Apollo and Deineter [to do his duty] ; invok-
ing destruction upon himself and his posterity if he swear
falsely. He shall take the oath over the burning sacrifices,
and the Boule shall enforce this requirement. If the oath
be not taken, the penalty may be a fine of one thousand
drachmae, or whatever fine the people of Erythrae vote to
inflict. ...
i Evidently seats in the Boule were considered likely to be much in de-
mand by young men, and pains must be taken to exclude them.
460 B.C.] ATHENS AND PHASELIS 217
[The oath as given binds the would-be-Bouleman to do his duty
by his own people, and to keep loyally the alliance and friendship
with Athens ; also not to receive any exiles who have fled to the
Medes.]
If any Erythrseans kill a fellow-citizen, the penalty is
death. If an Erythraean be banished for life, this banish-
ment extends to the cities allied with Athens also : and his
property is confiscate to the Erythrseans. If any man be
detected betraying the city to tyrants, he becomes an out-
law, and his children with him, unless his children prove
that they have been friendly both to Ery thrse and Athens :
[in which case they can keep half their father's property].
80. THE BELATIONS OF ATHENS WITH PHASELIS
Inscription. Date about 460 B.C.
Phaselis was a maritime town of Lycia, on the Pamphylian
Gulf. The place is named in Thucydides (II. 69) as being an im-
portant station for the commerce of Athens with Cilicia and Phoe-
nicia. This inscription shows the form in which the Athenians
cast their decrees, and the manner in which the sovereign Athe-
nian demos in the day of its prosperity tried to tie the dependent
states to its jurisdiction.
Voted by the Boule and the Demos. When [the tribe of]
Acamantis held the Prytany [i.e. presidency of the 500],
Onasippus was secretary, and was chairman. Leon
made the motion which follows,
Let a decree be graven for the men of Phaselis, setting
forth that litigation arising from contracts made at Athens,
with any man of Phaselis, shall be triable before the pole-
march at Athens, and in no other place, even as was the
case with the Chians. 1
Other cases arising from covenants are to be treated, in
dealing with the Phaselitans, even as in the agreements
i A precedent for the Athenians 1 action.
218 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
with the Chians: nevertheless, cases arising outside the
city [of Athens] are exempted from this rule.
If the archon receive a case against a citizen of Phaselis,
from a man dwelling elsewhere [than in Athens], and the
defendant be condemned, the decision shall not stand.
If he (the archon) be proven to have [acted contrary to ?]
the decree, he shall pay a fine of 1000 drachmae [about
$180.00] : which money shall be consecrated to Athene.
The secretary of the Boule shall have this decree en-
graved on a stone monument, and erected in the Acropolis,
at the expense of the men of Phaselis.
81. How THE PELOPONKESIAH WAR BEGAN AT PLAT- A
Thucydides, book H, chaps. 2-6. Jowetf s Translation
In March 431 B.C. the Thebans (allies of Sparta) made a treach-
erous attack upon Plataea (an ally of Athens), thereby precipitating
the Peloponnesian War. The Thebans were natural enemies of the
Plataeans, since they had long been striving to bring all the Boeotian
towns under their direct overlordship, and Plataea (since about 509
B.C.) had avoided their grasp by making a firm league with Athens.
For fourteen years the "Thirty Years' Peace" which
was concluded after the recovery of Eubcea [by Athens]
remained unbroken ; but in the fifteenth year when Chrysis,
the high priestess of Argos, was in the forty-eighth year of
her priesthood, JEnesias being ephor at Sparta, and at
Athens Pythodorus having two months of his archonship
to run, 1 in the sixth month after the engagement at Potidsea
and at the beginning of spring, about the first watch of the
night an armed force of somewhat more than three hundred
Thebans entered Platsea, a city of BcBotia, which was an
ally of Athens.
[They had been invited in by some political malcontents, who
hoped to overthrow the local pro-Athenian government.]
1 Note the extremely cumbersome method used in dating the years,
The method of dating by Olympiads was not used before about 260 B.C.
431 B.C.] THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 219
There was an old quarrel between the two cities, and the
Thebans, seeing that war was inevitable, were anxious to
surprise the place while the peace lasted and before hostili-
ties had actually broken out. No watch had been set; and
so they were able to enter the city unperceived. They
grounded their arms in the Agora ; but instead of going to
work at once and making their way into the houses of their
enemies, as those who invited them suggested, they resolved
to issue a conciliatory proclamation and try to make friends
with the citizens. The herald announced that if any one
wished to become their ally and return to the ancient con-
stitution of Boeotia, he should join their ranks. In this
way they thought that the inhabitants would be easily in-
duced to come over to them.
The Platasans, when they found that the city had been
surprised and taken, and that the Thebans were inside the
walls, were panic-stricken. In the darkness they were un-
able to see them and greatly overestimated their numbers.
So they came to terms, and, accepting the proposals made to
them, remained quiet, the more readily since the Thebans
offered violence to no one.
The Townsfolk fall upon the Intruders
But in the course of the negotiations they somehow dis-
covered that their enemies were not so numerous as they
had supposed, and concluded they could easily attack and
master them. They determined to make the attempt, for
the Platsean people were strongly attached to the Athenian
alliance. They began to collect inside the houses, break-
ing through the party walls, that they might not be seen
going along the streets ; they likewise raised barricades of
wagons, unyoking the beasts that drew them, and took
other measures suitable to the emergency. When they had
done all that could be done under the circumstances they
sallied forth from their houses, choosing the time of night
220 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
just before daybreak lest, if they put off the attack until
dawn, the enemy might be more confident and more a match
for them. While darkness lasted they would be timid and
at a disadvantage, not knowing the streets so well as them-
selves. 1 So they fell upon them at once hand to hand.
When the Thebans found they had been deceived they
closed their ranks and resisted their assailants on every
side. Two or three times they drove them back ; but when
at last the Platseans charged them with a great shout, and
the women and slaves on the housetops screamed, and yelled,
and pelted them with stones and tiles, the confusion being
aggravated by the rain which had been falling heavily during
the night, they turned and fled in terror through the city.
Hardly any of them knew the way out : and the streets were
dark as well as muddy, for the affair happened at the end
of the month when there was no moon; whereas their
pursuers knew well enough how to prevent their escape, and
thus many of them perished.
TJie Thebans are Overpowered
The gates by which they .entered were the only ones
open, and these a Platsean fastened with the spike of a
javelin, which he thrust into the bar instead of the pin.
So this exit, too, was closed and they were chased up and
down the city. Some of them mounted upon the wall, and
cast themselves down into the open. Most of these were
killed. Others got out by a deserted gate, cutting through
the bar unperceived, with an ax which a woman gave them ;
but only a few, for they were soon found out. But the
greater number kept together, and took refuge in a large
building abutting upon the wall, of which the doors on the
near side chanced to be open, they thinking them to be the
gates of the city, and expecting to find a way through them
ilf Plataea was a typical Greek town, the streets were undoubtedly
fearfully dark, narrow, and crooked.
425 B.C.] THE AFFAIR OF PYLOS 221
into the country. The Plataeans, seeing that they were in a
trap, began to consider whether they should not set the
building on fire and burn them as they were. At last they
and the other Thebans who were still alive and were wander-
ing about the city, agreed to surrender themselves and their
arms unconditionally. Thus fared the Thebans in Plataea.
The main body of the Theban army, which should have
come during the night to the support of the party entering
the city in case of a reverse, having on the march heard of
the disaster, were now hastening to the rescue. Platasa is
about eight miles distant from Thebes, and the heavy rain
which had fallen in the night delayed their arrival ; for the
river Asopus had swollen and was not easily fordable.
Marching in the rain, and with difficulty crossing the river,
they came up too late, some of their friends being already
slain and others captives.
[The Thebans now tried to seize such Platseans as were outside
the walls as hostages, but were warned by herald to retire instantly,
or the captives in Plataea would be killed. The Thebans therefore
retreated, declaring afterwards they had been promised the pris-
oners would be restored. The Platseans denied having made this
promise, 1 and the moment the Thebans were gone, put the 180
prisoners to death.]
82. THE AFFAIR OP Psxos
Abridged from Thucydides, book IV, chaps. 3-14. Jowett's Translation
In 425 B.C. came the " Affair of Pylos," which gave a turn
to the war that ought to have ended it in the favor of Athens.
It was only the most blundering statesmanship that prevented
that happy issue. If Pericles had been living, it is safe to say
the contest would then have terminated with a most satisfactory
peace. By capturing the Spartan garrison at Sphacteria, however,
the Athenians at least gained a means of compelling the enemy
to cease from their periodic ravagings of Attica.
i The Theban version was probabjy the more correct.
222 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
When an expedition of the Athenians bound for Sicily,
by way of Coreyra, put in at Pylos on the coast of Laconia,
Demosthenes, one of the admirals, urged his colleagues to
fortify the place as being easily defended, and a useful
stronghold against the Spartans in their own country.
The others told him "there were plenty of desolate prom-
ontories he might fortify if he wished to waste the public
funds." However, the weather hindered the fleet from
sailing, and the Athenian v soldiers, having nothing else
to do, built a fort, improvising the tools and material ; and
the place was natiirally so strong that it needed little work
to make it almost impregnable. Then the fleet sailed away,
leaving five ships to defend the new fortress.
When the news of this reached the Peloponnesians they
were invading Attica. Now they hastened promptly home,
and the Spartans summoned their allies to send ships to
blockade and reduce Pylos ; but Demosthenes hastened off
two vessels to Corcyra to call back the fleet to rescue him.
The Lacedwmonians fail to retake the Athenian Fortress
While the Athenians were hastening up with succor, the
Lacedaemonians were preparing to attack the fort by sea
and land. They thought that there would be little difficulty
in taking a work so hasily constructed and defended by
a mere handful. However, to head off the Athenian ships
they resolved to close the harbor, and so cut off all aid.
The small island called Sphacteria, close to the land, divided
the harbor entrances, leaving both quite narrow: the one
on the north nearest Pylos only wide enough to give pas-
sage for two ships; the southern one for eight or nine.
The island was about [a mile and three quarters] long and
heavily wooded. To hold this island the Lacedaemonians
sent 420 hoplites, besides their attendant helots, 1 com-
manded by Epitadas, the son of Molobrus.
i Probably one helot for each hoplite
425 B.C.] THE AFFAIR OF PYLOS 223
Meantime Demosthenes had arrayed his small body of
sailors and hoplites to best advantage. He exhorted his
men to stand firm : pointing out their great advantage of
position, and how difficult it was to disembark in the face
of an enemy who was not " frightened out of his wits at
the splashing of oars and the threatening look of a ship
bearing down upon him."
The Lacedaemonians attacked with 43 ships: but they
had to come up by relays there was only space for a
few ships to approach at once ; and the pilots were fearful
of getting on the rocks. They made great efforts to dis-
embark but could not on account of the roughness of
the ground and the steadfastness of the Athenians. It was
a strange turn of fortune indeed which drove the Athenians
[the great sea power] to repel the Lacedaemonians, who
were attacking them by sea from the Lacedaemonian coast;
and the Lacedaemonians [the great land power] to fight for
a landing on their own soil, now hostile to them, in the
face of the Athenians.
TJte AtJienians gain the Upper Hand
Three days long the attack was pressed vainly; and
now the Athenian fleet 50 strong came hasting back from
Zacynthus. When the Peloponnesians did not sail out to meet
them, after the Athenian admirals realized the situation,
they rushed into the harbor by both entrances at once, and
drove the enemies' ships ashore. The Lacedaemonians in
agony for their friends now cut off on the island, struggled
desperately, but it was in vain. The Athenians gained
control of the harbor, and set a guard over the island.
At Sparta there was now vast consternation. The ephors
finding no means of relieving their men on Sphacteria made
a compact with the Athenian admirals. They were to
hand over all their ships to the Athenians; and in turn
the Athenians were to allow a fixed amount of food to be
224 THE GOLDEN AGE OP ATHENS
sent to the entrapped hoplites ; this to continue until peace
envoys could be sent to Athens to negotiate for the end
of the war. If either party violated the truce in the least,
it was to cease to be binding.
Sparta proposes Peace, but is refused Tolerable Conditions
At Athens the Spartan envoys talked earnestly of the op-
portunity now given the Athenians for ending the war on
advantageous terms ; and promised " the lasting friendship
of the Lacedaemonians," if they would consent to reasonable
conditions ; also urging that Athens and Sparta if allied
could give the law to all Hellas ; but Cleon, a popular dema-
gogue, who had the greatest influence over the multitude,
induced the Ecclesia to reply that Sparta must allow Athens
to have Nissea [the port of Megara], Troezen and 'Achaia,
places Athens had not lost in this war but in a former
one. Despite their anxiety for peace, the Spartan envoys
dared not consent to such terms. They quitted Athens and
the truce was. at end. On the ground of some petty in-
fractions of the agreement, the Athenians refused to restore
to the enemy the ships that had been given up during the
negotiation, and pressed the blockade of the island, but the
task of reducing it was difficult. On windy days the blockade
was imperfect and boats ran the gantlet ; again swimmers
made their way over dragging skins containing pounded lin-
seed and poppy seeds mixed with honey.
How Cleon was sent to Sphacteria
At Athens there was now fear that the Spartans would
escape, and Cleon at last spoke in the Ecclesia ; criticizing
especially Kicias the general, his personal enemy, saying
sarcastically " that if the generals were good for anything
they might easily sail to the island and take the men, and
that was certainly what he would do, were he but general."
425 B.C.] THE AFFAIR OF PYLOS 225
Nicias thereupon retorted that "so far as the generals
were concerned he might take any force he required and
try." Cleon at first imagined Nicias was pretending, and
was willing to go ; finding him in earnest he tried to beg
off, and said that " It was not he, but Nicias who was gen-
eral"; for he was alarmed, having never imagined that
Nicias would go so far as to give up his place to him. The
more, however, Cleon tried to decline and retract, the more
the multitude, as their manner is, urged Cleon to sail instead
of Nicias. At last, unable to escape, he undertook the ex-
pedition, saying he was not afraid ; and that if he could have
certain auxiliary light troops, he would in twenty days
either kill all the Lacedaemonians, or capture them. His
words awoke laughter: and the wiser citizens were pleased
when they reflected that one of two good things was certain
an end to Cleon, which alternative they preferred, or at
least the capture of the Lacedaemonians.
Cleon makes good his Promise
Cleon, however, was aided by a fire, which destroyed most
of the woods on Sphacteria, and revealed the numbers and
position of the enemy. Disembarking an overwhelming
number of men, mostly light-armed troops with missiles, he
harassed the Spartans in a long desperate fight, and drove
them back to a fort, where they held out bravely for some
time, until they were surrounded, and at last, when all hope
was fled, and their leaders slain, they surrendered. Of
the 420 hoplites originally on the island, only 295 lived to
be taken.
The Athenians now withdrew their army and returned
home; and the mad promise of Cleon was fulfilled
for he did bring back the prisoners within twenty days, as
he had said.
Nothing which happened during the war caused greater
amazement in Hellas ; for it was universally imagined
226 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
that the Lacedaemonians would never give up their arms
even under the pressure of famine, but would fight to the
last and die sword in hand. 1
On the arrival of the captives the Athenians resolved to
put them in chains until peace was concluded ; but if in the
meantime the Lacedaemonians invaded Attica, to slay the
prisoners. They also threw a garrison into Pylos, which
fortress became a center for ravaging expeditions into La-
conia, and a refuge for runaway helots.
83. THE SAILING OF THE ATHENIAN ARMAMENT FOB
SICILY
Thucydides, book VI, chaps. 30-32. Jowett's Translation
In 415 B.C., at the instigation of the clever hut self-seeking
Alcibiades, the Athenians dispatched a vast armament for the
conquest of Syracuse. They put forth their uttermost resources
upon the expedition, rightly convinced that victory here would
give them the supremacy of Hellas. The story of the sailing of
the fleet is the occasion for one of the most graphic passages in
Thucydides. There is, of course, the unspoken contrast between
the vastness of the hopes of the Athenians and the depth of the
calamity into which they were plunging.
Early in the morning of the day appointed for their de-
parture the Athenians and such of their allies as had al-
ready joined them went down to the Piraeus and began to
man the ships. The entire population of Athens accompa-
nied them, citizens and strangers alike. The citizens came
to take farewell, one of an acquaintance, another of a kins-
man, another of a son : the crowd as they passed along were
full of hope and full of tears : hope of conquering Sicily,
tears because they doubted whether they would ever see
1 There was nothing " mad " about Cleon's promise to capture the Spar-
tans : they were simply overwhelmed by numbers, but the awe in which the
Athenians and all other Hellenes stood of even a battalion of these hop-
lites is a testimony to Spartan military tradition and valor.
415 B.C.] EXPEDITION TO SICILY 227
their friends again, when they thought of the long voyage
on which they were sending them. . . . Nevertheless their
spirits revived at the sight of the armament in all its strength
and of the abundant provision which they had made. The
strangers and the rest of the multitude came out of curiosity,
desiring to witness an enterprise of which the greatness
exceeded belief.
No armament so magnificent or costly had ever been sent
out by any single Hellenic power. . . * On the fleet the
greatest pains had been lavished by the trierarchs x and by
the state. The public treasury gave a drachma per day (18
cents), to each sailor, and furnished empty hulls for 60
swift-sailing vessels, and for 40 transports carrying hoplites.
All these were manned by the best crews which could be
obtained. The trierarchs, besides the pay given by the state,
added somewhat out of their own means to the wages of
the upper tiers of rowers 2 and of the petty officers. The
figureheads and other fittings provided by them were of the
most costly description. Every one strove to the uttermost
that Ids ship might excel both in beauty and swiftness.
The infantry, too, had been well selected and the lists care-
fully made up. There was the keenest rivalry among the
soldiers in the matter of arms and personal equipment.
And while at home the Athenians were thus competing with
one another in the performance of their several duties, to
the rest of Hellas the expedition seemed to be a grand dis-
play of their power and greatness, rather than a preparation
for war. If any one reckoned up the whole expenditure (I)
of the state, (II) of individual soldiers [and private contrib-
utors] he would have found that altogether an immense sum
amounting to many talents was withdrawn from the city.
* Here is meant the wealthy citizens who assumed the outfitting of a
trireme, rather than its actual commander.
2 These rowers puUed the longest oars and had the most responsible
tasks.
228 THE GOLDEN AGE OP ATHENS
Men marveled at the boldness of the scheme, and the
magnificence of the spectacle, which was everywhere
spoken of ; no less than at the great disproportion of the
force when compared with that of the enemy against whom
it was intended. Never had a greater expedition been
sent to a foreign land. Never was there an enterprise in
which hope of future success seemed better justified by
present power.
When the ships were manned, and everything required
for the voyage had been placed on board, silence was pro-
claimed by sound of the trumpet, and all with one voice be-
fore setting sail offered up the customary prayers. These
were recited, not in each ship, but by a single herald, the
whole fleet accompanying him. On every deck both officers
and men mingled wine in the bowls, and made libations
from vessels of gold and silver. The multitude of citizens
and other well-wishers who were looking on from the land
joined in the prayer. The crews raised the Psean, and when
the libations were completed put out to sea. After sailing
out for some distance in single file, the ships raced with one
another as far as JSgina. Thence they hastened onwards
to Corcyra, where the allies who formed the rest of the
armament were assembling. 1
84 THE LAST FIGHT IN THE HARBOR OF SYRACUSE
Thucydides, book TO, chaps. 70-71. Jowett's Translation
By September 413 B.O. the efforts of the Athenians to take
Syracuse had failed absolutely, thanks more to the incapacity of
1 The magnificence of the spectacle in the Piraeus can best be realized
tfhen we remember that these ships 134 triremes and many smaller
vessels were driven by oars. A single trireme pulling 85 oars to the
side, tossing the foam with its bronze beak, its upper works glittering
with bright steel and color, the flashing blades all pumiced white, and
very likely with a huge orange square sail set was surely a wonderful sight !
What, then, must have been this vast armament at the havens of Athens?
413 B.C.] SEA-FIGHT AT SYRACUSE 229
Nicias, their general, than to the valor of the defenders. The
Syracusans had blockaded the harbor, whence lay the sole chance
of retreat for the Athenians by sea ; and the latter in desperation
strove to force the barriers and win an escape from the country
they had come to conquer. Again Thucydides is at his best in his
description of the contest, which he must have often heard re-
hearsed by eyewitnesses.
When the Athenians approached the closed mouth of the
harbor, the violence of their onset overpowered the ships
which were stationed there ; they then attempted to loosen
the fastenings [with which the enemy had joined the ships
which blockaded the harbor]. Whereupon from all sides
the Syracusans and their allies came bearing down on them,
and the conflict was no longer confined to the entrance, but
extended throughout the harbor. No previous engagement
had been so fierce and obstinate. Great was the eagerness
with which rowers on both sides rushed upon their enemies
whenever the word of command was given ; and keen was
the contest between the pilots as they maneuvered against
one another. The marines, too, were full bf anxiety that,
when ship struck ship, their service on deck should not fall
short of the rest ; every one in the place assigned to him
was eager to be foremost among his fellows.
The Actual Conflict
Many vessels meeting and never did so many fight in
so small a space, for the two fleets together amounted to nearly
two hundred they were seldom able to strike in a regular
manner, because they had no opportunity of first retiring or
breaking the line; they generally fouled one another as
ship dashed against ship in the hurry of flight or pursuit.
All the time that another vessel was bearing down, the men
on deck poured showers of javelins and arrows and stones
upon the enemy ; and when the two closed the marines fought
230 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
hand to hand, and endeavored to board. In many places,
owing to want of room, they who had struck another found
that they were struck themselves ; oft^n two or even more
vessels were unavoidably entangled about one, and the pilots
had to make plans of attack and defense not against one
adversary only, but against several coming from different
sides.
The crash of so many ships dashing against one another
took away the wits of the sailors, and made it impossible to
hear the boatswains, whose voices in both fleets rose high
as they gave directions to the rowers, or cheered them on in
the excitement of the struggle. On the Athenian side they
were shouting to their men that they must force a passage
and seize the opportunity, now or never, of returning in
safety to their native land. To the Syracusans and their
allies was represented the glory of preventing the escape of
their enemies, and of a victory by which every man could
exalt the honor of his city.
The Agony of the Onlookers
While the naval engagement hung in the balance, the two
armies on shore had great trial and conflict of soul. The
fortune of the battle varied ; and it was not possible that
the spectators on the shore should all receive the same view
of it. Being quite close and having different points of view,
they would some of them see their own ships victorious ;
their courage would then revive and they would call ear-
nestly upon the gods " not to take from them their hope of de-
liverance ! " But others, who saw their ships worsted, cried
and shrieked aloud, and were by the sight alone more utterly
unnerved than the defeated combatants themselves. Others
again, who had fixed their gaze on some part of the struggle
which was undecided, were in a state of excitement still
more terrible ; they kept swaying their bodies to and fro
413 B.C.] THE ATHENIAN PRISONERS 231
in agony of hope and fear as the stubborn conflict went on
and on; for at every instant they were all but saved or all
but lost!
The Athenians are Worsted
While the strife thus hung in the balance you might hear
in the Athenian army at once lamentation, shouting, cries
of victory or defeat, and all the various sounds which are
wrung from, a great host in extremity of danger. ETo less
agonizing were the feelings of those on board. At length
the Syracusans and their allies, after a protracted struggle,
put the Athenians to flight, and triumphantly bearing down
on them, and encouraging one another with loud cries and
exhortations, drove them to land. Then [the remaining
Athenian vessels], fell back in confusion to the shore, and
their crews rushed out of their ships into the camp. And the
latid forces uttering one universal groan of intolerable an-
guish, ran, some to save the ships, others to defend what
remained of the wall [guarding the camp] ; but the greater
number began to look to themselves and to their own safety.
Never had there been a greater panic in an Athenian army.
85. How THE ATHENIAN PRISONERS AT SYRACUSE WERE
TREATED
Thucydides, book VII, chap. 87. Jowett's Translation
After the failure to force their way from the harbor by sea, the
Athenians tried to flee by land from Syracuse to some friendly
Sicilian city. The roads were blocked ; they were surrounded and
forced to surrender. Their terrible fate is here recounted. This
was the epilogue to the drama begun when the great armada swept
out of the cheering Piraeus two years previously.
The Athenians imprisoned in the quarries were at first
harshly treated by the Syracusans. There were great
numbers of them, and they were crowded in a deep and
narrow place. At first the sun by day was still scorching
232 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
and suffocating, for they had no roof over their heads, while
the autumn nights were cold and the extremes of tempera-
ture engendered violent disorders. Being cramped for room,
they had to do everything in the same spot. The corpses of
those who died from wounds, exposure to the weather and
the like lay heaped one upon another. The smells were in-
tolerable; and they were at the same time afflicted by
hunger and thirst. During eight months they were allowed
only about half a pint of water and a pint of food per day.
Every kind of misery which could befall a man in such a
place, befell them. This was the condition of all the
captives for about ten weeks. At length the Syracusans
sold [a part of them into slavery].
86. THE BATTLE OF
Xenophon, " Hellenica," book II, chap. 1. Bohn Translation
In 405 B.C. the gallant and partially successful resistance of
the Athenians after the awful Syracusan disaster came to an end
in the final disaster of JEgospotami. It was caused more by the
gross blundering of the Athenian admirals than by the ability
of Lysander, the Spartan commander. With this inglorious and
absolute defeat ended the mighty sea power that had been created
by Themistocles, and which had kept the JEgean so long in awe.
The Athenians sailing in the track [of Lysander's Spartan
armament] came to anchor at Elens in the [Thracian] Cher-
sonesus with 180 ships. Whilst they were taking their
breakfast there, the news came of what had just happened at
Lampsacus [how Lysander had taken it], and instantly they
pushed out to Sestus. Thence, after provisioning their ships,
away they went to ^Egospotami over against Lampsacus ; the
Hellespont at this point being some fifteen stadia across
[about one and two thirds miles]. There they made ready
their evening meal The next day, when dawn was break-
ing, Lysander ordered his men to breakfast and go on ship-
board. After making ready for a battle ... he ordered
405 B.C.] BATTLE OF ^QOSPOTAMI 233
that no one should stir from his position, or put out to sea.
The Athenians at sunrise were drawn up by the harbor with
a close front, ready to engage, but when Lysander did not
attack them, and it was growing late, they sailed back to
JSgospotami. Lysander ordered his fastest ships to scout
after the Athenians, and when they had landed to observe
what they did, then report back to him. He acted thus for
four days, while the Athenians continued putting out against
him [for battle].
[Alcibiades living in exile in a fortress on the shore cau-
tioned the Athenian admirals that they were not in a good
position, and advised them to remove to Sestus, but the
admirals] . . . told him to " go away, for they were in com-
mand now, not he " : and accordingly he departed.
Lysander entraps the Athenians into Battle
So on the fifth day the Athenians sailed out against
Lysander, and he ordered his scouts which followed them,
that when on the return of the Athenians, they saw them
landed, and dispersed about the Chersonesus, for they did
so much more every day, having to buy their provisions at a
distance, and getting to despise Lysander for not attacking
them, the scouts should at once sail again to him, and lift
up a shield [as signal] when they were halfway back.
These commands they executed. Immediately Lysander
gave the signal for his fleet to sail at its uttermost speed.
. . . Conon [the Athenian admiral] on seeing him coming
gave orders to " go on board the ships, and face the enemy
with all one's might " : but, since his men were utterly
dispersed, some of the [Athenian] ships had only two
benches manned ; some had only one ; some were actually
empty of men. Conon's own ship, and seven others near
him, got to sea with their complement; also the Pardlus 1 ;
iThe sacred state galley.
234 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
but all the rest Lysander caught close by the land. He
captured, too, most of the men ashore, though some fled to
the fortified towns.
Conon, escaping with his niue ships, when he found the
cause of Athens was utterly blasted, landed at Abarnis, a
headland of Lampsacus, and took away the large sails of
Lysander's vessels, and then sailed away with eight ships to
join Evagoras in Cyprus, while the Pardlus sped to Athens
with the tidings of disaster.
[Lysander, after his victory, put to death nearly all his
prisoners that were Athenians in retaliation for certain
alleged cruelties wrought by them.]
The Terrible News reaches Athens
At Athens on the arrival of the Paralus in the night,
the tale of their disaster was told; and the lamentation
spread from the Piraeus up the " Long Walls " into the city,
one man passing the fell news to another ; and that night no
man slept mourning not only their dead, but dreading
even more the woes that they themselves must suffer, such
woes as they had inflicted on the Melians a colony of
Lacedsemon, whom they had starved out, and on the
JSginetans, and so many others among the Greeks.
87. A MEETING OF THE EOCLESIA
Euripides, " Orestes," 1. 866 ff. Way's translation
No person was a sharper critic of all things of his age than the
great radical and skeptic the Athenian tragedian Euripides. In
the " Orestes/' under the guise of describing the public assembly con-
vened at Argos to try the case of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon
( accused of slaying his mother, who in turn had murdered his
father, her husband ), he draws an unsparing picture of assemblies
in Athens where the fickle and shallow-thinking multitude and the
time-serving demagogues often ignored the claims of real wisdom
and justice.
408 B.C.] MEETING OF THE ECCLESIA 235
A Messenger [speaking to the waiting Electra, the sister of
Orestes'].
It chanced that I was entering the gates
Out of the country, fain to learn thy state,
And of Orestes : for unto thy sire
Aye was I loyal : thine house fostered me,
A poor man, yet true hearted to his friends.
Then throngs I saw to seats on yon height climb
Where first, as men say, Danaus, by JSgyptus
Impeached, in general session gathered us ;
Marking the crowd, I asked a citizen
" What news in Argos ? Hath a bruit of foes
Startled the city of the Danai'ds ? "
But he, " Dost thou not mark Orestes there
Draw near to run the race whose goal is death ?"
Would I had ne'er seen that unlooked-for sight
Pylades with thy brother moving on ;
This, sickness-palsied, with down-drooping head ;
That, as a brother, in his friend's affliction
Affected, tended like a nurse the sick.
When now the Argive gathering was full,
A herald rose and cried "Who fain would speak
Whether Orestes ought to live or die
For matricide ? " Talthybius thereupon
Eose, helper of thy sire when Troy was sacked,
He spake subservient ever to the strong
Half-heartedly, extolling high thy sire,
But praising not thy brother ; intertwined
Fair words and foul " that he laid down a law
Eight ill for parents " ; so was glancing still
With flattering eye upon JEgisthus's friends.
Such is the herald tribe ; lightly they skip
To fortune's minion's side ; their friend is he
Who in a state hath power and beareth rule.
236 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
Next after him Prince Diomedes spake.
Thee nor thy brother would he have them slay,
But exile you, of reverence to the Gods.
Then murmured some that good his counsel was ;
Some praised it not.
Thereafter rose up one
Of tongue unbridled, stout in impudence,
An Argive, yet no Argive, 1 thrust on us ;
In bluster, and coarse-grained fluency confident,
Still plausible to trap the folk in mischief ;
For when an evil heart with winning tongue
Persuades the crowd, ill is it for the state ;
Whoso with understanding counsel well
Profit the state ere long, if not straightway.
Thus ought we on each leader of men to look,
And so esteem ; for both be in like case,
The speaker and [the hearers of the speech].
Thee and Orestes he bade stone to death.
But Tyndareus still prompted him with words
That best told, as he labored for your death.
To plead against him, then another rose,
No dainty presence, but a manful man,
In town and market circle seldom found,
A yeoman, such as are the land's one stay,
Yet shrewd in grapple of words, when this [had need],
A stainless man who lived a blameless life,
He moved that they should crown Agamemnon's son
Orestes, since he had dareol avenge his sire,
Slaying the wicked and the godless wife
Who sapped our strength ; none would take shield on arm
Or would forsake his home to march to war,
If men's house warders be seduced the while
By stayers at home, and [marriage] be defiled.
l The poet means a man who had obtained citizenship by dubious meth-
ods, a slap possibly at some noisy orator at Athens.
422 B.C.] ATHENIAN JURORS 237
To honest men he seemed to speak right well ;
And none spake after. Then thy brother rose
And said, " Lords of the land of Inachus,
Of old Pelasgians, later Danaus's sons,
'Twas in yonr cause, no less than in my sire's
I slew my mother, for if their lord's blood
Shall bring no guilt on wives, make haste to die ;
Else must ye live in thraldom to your wives,
And transgress against all rightfulness.
For now the traitress to my father's couch
Is dead ; but if ye shall indeed slay me,
Law is annulled ; better men died straightway ;
Since for no crime shall wives be lacking now."
They would not hear, though well he spake, meseemed.
That knave prevailed, who to the mob appealed,
"Who called on them to slay thy brother and thee.
Hapless Orestes scarce could gain the boon
By stoning not to die. By his own hand
He pledged him to leave life on this same day
With thee. Now from the gathering Pylades
Brhigeth him weeping ; and his friends attend
Lamenting with strong crying. 1 . . . Thy princely birth
Nought hath availed thee, nor the [oracle of] King
Apollo, tripod-throned ; nay, [it] ruined thee ! 2
88. THE HABITS OF ATHENIAN JUROBS
Aristophanes, " The Wasps," 11. 520 ff., adapted from the Bohn Translation,
vol. I, p. 204
In Aristophanes's "Wasps" about 422 B.O. a keenly critical picture
is drawn of the characters who haunted the Attic jury courts, got
themselves put on the list of dicasts as often as possible, and
followed the fine points of the trial with acumen and delight ; but
iThe average Greek saw nothing improper in weeping in public, and
indulging otherwise in actions now counted unmanly.
2 The mere fact that Orestes and his sister were royal-born made a demo-
cratic assembly more pitiless.
238 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
who were nevertheless open to all sorts of illicit appeals and influ-
ences. Probably in most cases, however, substantial justice was
done, although the chance for personal prejudice and motive was
dangerously large. At least knaves did not escape on mere techni-
calities.
[Philocleon, the old Dicast, speaks]
Now I will set forth from the beginning our dominion
[as dicasts], for it is inferior to no other sovereignty. For
what animal is to-day more happy or enviable, more luxu-
rious or terrible than a dicast ? Especially an old veteran
[in the work] ? [A tall litigant] lays his hand gently
upon me as I [approach the court in the morning], and
bowing low supplicates me with piteous voice, " Pity me,
father : I beseech you, if ever you yourself stole anything
when you held a public office, or while on military service you
had to make purchases for your messmates." And he [this
suppliant] wouldn't have known that I was so much as alive,
but for his former acquittal ?
Then when I have entered the court after being entreated,
and having had my anger wiped away, when once inside I
don't do a thing that I have promised; but I just listen to
them spouting their eloquence, begging for an acquittal !
Ah ! Let me see what flattery is there that a dicast
can't hear at the court? Some lament their poverty and
add [feigned] ills to real ones, until by grieving they make
their griefs equal to mine : others tell us mythical
stories ; others some merry jest from JSsop ; others utter
jokes to make me laugh and lay aside my anger. And if
these means don't win us over, at once the litigant drags
in his children, hand in hand, daughters and sons, while I
harken to him. They bend down their heads together, and
all bleat at once; then their father all a-tremble, suppli-
cates me as if I were a god, in their behalf, to "Acquit for
tfieir sakes!" "If you are moved by the voice of your
422 B.C.] ATHENIAN JURORS 239
lamb [at home], pity the voice of my son!" But if again
[he thinks] I enjoy my little pigs [i.e. children] he beseeches
me to be won over by the voice of his daughter. Then
we relax the " peg of our wrath " just a little bit for him !
Isn't this a fine empire !
Likewise -when the youths undergo the scrutiny, then
our presence is required. 1 And if JSagrus 2 enter court as a
defendant, he doesn't escape until he recites to us a passage
from the Niobe, some part picked out as the finest. And
if a flute player gains his suit, our fee for this is that he
play the finale for us dicasts as we leave the court. Also if
a father, who dies leaving an heiress, give her [by will] in
marriage to any one, we first bid a long farewell to the
testament and the solemnly sealed evidence, and hand the
heiress over to the man who has won us by his entreaties.
We aren't held responsible for what we do, though all the
other magistrates are !
Moreover, the Council [of 500] and the Assembly, when
they have trouble in settling any case, vote to hand the
offenders over to us dicasts. Even Cleon the conqueror 8 of
all at bawling [in public], alone spares us from criticism,
but watches over us [tenderly], " holding us in his hands
and keeping off the flies."
But the best thing of all I had nigh forgotten. When I
come home [at night] with my fee, then all the family run
to greet me for the money's sake. First of all my daughter
washes and anoints me, and stooping over me gives me a
kiss, and, wheedling me, at the same time fishes out the
three-obol piece [9 cents] with her tongue. 4 Then my little
woman having won me over with her flattery brings me a
nice barley-cake and then sitting down by my side con-
1 Young men at 20 had to satisfy a court as to their fitness for Athenian
citizenship. 2 A famous tragic actor.
* Cleon was Aristophanes's especial aversion.
4 Greeks very commonly carried a coin by putting it in their cheek.
240 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
strains me, saying, "eat this," "gobble that." Do I not
hold a mighty empire, not inferior to that of Zeus ?
[At an earlier point in the drama the chorus of dicasts is made
to say :]
Assuredly Philocleon used to be by far the fiercest in our
company, and alone of us not to be persuaded. Whenever
any one supplicated him, he used to bend his head down
thus [imitating"] and say, " You are boiling a stone." x . . .
Come, good friend, get up [and come out of your house,] for
a wealthy comrade of the knaves who betrayed our interests
in Thrace is come to trial. Take care that you duly dis-
grace him, and verily make an end of him.
89. ANECDOTES ABOUT SOCRATES
Diogenes Laertius, " Life of Socrates." Bonn's Translation
Most of our information as to Socrates's teachings and philoso-
phy comes from his great pupils Plato and Xenophon, but for
the small personalia we are largely dependent upon the decidedly
dry biographer, Diogenes Laertius (about 200 A.D.), who is worth-
less as an interpreter of Socrates's life work, but who gives us
a good many anecdotes and stories like the following.
Socrates was the son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and
of Phsenarete, a midwife. He was a citizen of Athens, of
the deine of Alopece.
[At first he is said to have been a sculptor and] some
say that the "Graces" on the Acropolis are his work.
Demetrius of Byzantium says it was Criton 2 who made him
quit his workshop and instruct men, out of the admiration
which he conceived for his abilities.
Socrates then perceiving that natural philosophy had
no immediate bearing upon our interests, began to ente]
into moral speculations both in his workshop and in the
1 You are doing something wholly in vain.
* A wealthy Athenian and friend of Socrates.
400 B.C.] STORIES OF SOCRATES 241
market place. And he said that the objects of his search were
" Whatever good or harm can befall man in his own house."
And very often while arguing or discussing points that
arose, he was treated with great violence and beaten, and
pulled about, and laughed at and ridiculed by the multitude.
But he bore this with great equanimity, so that once, when
he had been kicked and buffeted about, and had borne it
all patiently and some one expressed surprise, he said,
" Suppose an ass had kicked me, would you have me bring
an action against him ? "
He had no need of traveling though most philosophers
did travel except when he was bound to serve in the
army. But all the rest of his life he remained in the same
place, and in an argumentative spirit he used to dispute
with all who would converse with him; not with the
purpose of taking away their opinions from them, so much
as of learning the truth, so far as he could do so, himself.
He was a man of great firmness of mind and much
attached to the democratic government [of Athens], as was
made plain by his not submitting to Critias, 1 when he ordered
him to bring Leon of Salamis, a very rich man, before the
" Thirty " for the purpose of being murdered.
He was a contented and venerable man. Once when
Alcibiades offered him a large piece of ground to build
a house upon, he said, " But if I wanted shoes, and you
had given me a piece of leather to make myself shoes, I
should be laughed at if I took it. " And often when he
beheld the multitude of things which were being sold, he
would say to himself, " How many things there are which
I do not want ! "
Socrates and Xanthippe
[He was twice married ; the better known of his wives wai
the famous Xanthippe].
i The notorious chief of the " Thirty Tyrants " who held Athens 404 tc
403 B.C. * 3 A friend and pupil.
242 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
He said once to Xanthippe, -who first abused him and
then threw water at him, " Did I not say that Xanthippe
was thundering now, and would soon rain?" When
Alcibiades said to him, " The abusive temper of Xanthippe
is intolerable:" he rejoined, "But I amused to it, just as
if I were always hearing the noise of a pulley, and you
yourself endure to hear geese cackling." Once she attacked
him in the Agora and tore his cloak off; his friends ad-
vised him to keep her off with his hands. " Yes, by Zeus,"
he said, " so that while we are boxing, you may all cry out,
< Well done, Socrates ! ' < Well done, Xanthippe ! 9 " And
he used to say that one ought to live with a restive
woman, just as horsemen manage violent-tempered horses ;
"and as they," said he, "when they have once mastered
them, are easily able to manage all others ; so I, after
managing Xanthippe, can easily live with any one else
whatever."
Details of Socrates? s Trial
[At his trial] the sworn information on which the prose-
cution proceeded, were drawn up in this fashion. . . .
"Melitus, the son of Melitus of Pittea, impeaches Socrates,
son of Sophroniscus of Alopece : Socrates is guilty inas-
much as he does not believe in the gods which the state
worships, but introduces other strange deities : he is also
guilty, inasmuch as he corrupts the young men; and the
punishment he has incurred is death."
When the trial proceeded, it is said that Plato ascended
the tribune, and said, "I, men of Athens, being the youngest
of all who have mounted the tribune " [but here] he
was interrupted by the dicasts, who cried out Katabdntdn!
that is to say " Come down ! " *
So when Socrates had been condemned by 281 votes,
being sixty more than were given in his favor ; and when,
lOome down from the orator's stand, and stop talking. .
405 B.C.] SOCRATES AND MENO 243
the dicasts began making an estimate of what punishment
or fine should be inflicted upon him, he said he ought to
be fined 25 drachmae [something under $5.00], but Euba-
lides says that he admitted he deserved a fine of 100. And
when the dicasts raised an outcry at this proposition, he
said, " My real opinion is that as a return for what has been
done by me, I deserve a maintenance a* the Prytaneium
[city hall] for the rest of my life."
Under these circumstances they condemned him to death,
by 80 votes more than they had originally found him guilty.
And he was put in prison, and a few days afterward he drank
the hemlock, 1 having held many admirable conversations in
the meantime, which Plato has recorded in the " Phaedo."
90. SOCBATES'S METHOD OP SHOWING TIP IGNOEANCB
Plato, " Meno." Jowetf s Translation
Socrates made a great contribution to the science of correct
thinking by insisting on ultimate and satisfactory definitions of all
important terms and ideas. The method by which he exposed the
hollowness of pretended wisdom, by means of a series of seemingly
very innocent questions, is shown in a scant measure in the follow-
ing abstract from one of Plato's shorter dialogues, in which the
general Socratic method surely is preserved accurately. It need
hardly be said that the " Sophists " (i.e. men who professed to be
able to impart every kind of wisdom) were not made to love
Socrates by this process. In the present dialogue Socrates is
questioning Meno, who claims to have the key to " virtue."
Socrates. By the gods, Meno, be generous and tell me
what you say that virtue is ; for I shall be truly delighted
to find that I have been mistaken, and that you and Gorgias
[the famous sophist] do really have this knowledge j although
* Drinking the juice of poisonous hemlock was the regular method of
execution at Athens. The poison seems to have numbed the victim
gradually, and its action was relatively humane and painless.
244 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
I have been just saying that I have never found anybody
who had.
Meno. There will be no difficulty, Socrates, in answering
your question. Let us first take the virtue of a man he
should know how to administer the state, and in the admin-
istration of it ' to benefit his friends and harm his enemies ; 91
and he must also be careful not to suffer harm himself. [A.
woman has corresponding housewifely virtues. , . .] Every
age, every condition of life, young or old, male or female,
bond or free, has a different virtue; there are virtues num-
berless, and no lack of definitions of them ; for virtues are
relative to the actions and ages o'f each of us in all we do.
And the same may be said of vice, Socrates.
Socrates. How fortunate I am, Meno. When I ask you
for one virtue, you present me with a swarm of them, which
are in your keeping. Suppose that I carry on the figure of
the swarm and ask of you, " What is the nature of the bee ? "
and you answer that there are many kinds of bees, and
I reply, " But do bees differ as bees, because there are many
and different kinds of them ; or are they not rather to be
distinguished by some other quality, as for example, beauty,
size, or shape ? " How would you answer me ?
[After pressing a little more, Meno admits that not an enumer-
ation of different virtues, but a common definition of virtue is
what is needed.] ^
Meno. Will yoi/hVve but one definition of them all ?
Socrates. That is what I am seeking.
Meno. If you want to have one definition of them all, I
know not what to say, but that virtue is the power of govern-
ing mankind.
[Socrates now induces Meno to admit that this cannot describe
the virtue of all, e.g. of children or slaves ; unless the words
"justly " and "not unjustly " are added, which would be arguing
iThe true Hellenic substitute for the Golden Rule.
399 B.C.] SOCRATES'S APOLOGY 245
in a circle, for these words would have to be explained. Meno
then mentions various recognized virtues, e.g. courage, etc. But
that brings the old difficulty, so he tries again.]
Meno. Well, then, Socrates, virtue is when he who desires
to be honorable is able to provide it for himself; so the
poet says, and I say too :
"Virtue is the desire of things honorable, and the power of
attaining them."
[Socrates promptly shows that all men really desire the honor-
able ; so nothing is left of the definition but " the power of attain-
ing it." To make this satisfactory for explaining " virtue " one
must add, " of attaining it with justice " again arguing in a
circle. Meno gives up in desperation.]
Meno. Socrates, I used to behold, before I knew you,
that you were always doubting yourself, and making others
doubt ; and now you are casting your spell over me, and I
am simply getting bewitched and enchanted and am at my
wits' end. And if I venture to make a jest upon you, you
seem to me, both in your appearance and in your power, to
be like the flat torpedo fish, who torpifies those who come
near him and touch him, as you have now torpified me, I
think. For my soul and my tongue are really torpid, and I
do not know how to answer you ; and though I have been
delivered of an infinite variety of speeches about virtue be-
fore ao w, and to many persons, and very good ones they
were, as I thought, at this moment I cannot even say
what virtue is.
91. SOCRATES'S APOLOGY FOB HIS LIFE
Plato, " Apology of Socrates." Jowett's Translation
Socrates's defense of himself and of the life he had lived, as re-
corded by his pupil Plato, is one of the great documents of the
ages, and no abridgment can do it justice. It should be read
246 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
entire by every educated man or woman. Although the " Apology *
comes to us from the pen of Plato, there seems no good reason to
believe that he has failed to report substantially what Socrates
said at his trial in 399 B.C.
I [Socrates] will sum up the accusations against me in an
affidavit, " Socrates is an evildoer, and a curious person
who searches into things under the earth and in heaven,
and makes the worse appear the better cause; and he
teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others." But the simple
truth is, Athenians, that I have nothing to do with these
studies. Very many here present are witnesses to the
truth of this, and to them I appeal.
As little foundation is there for the report that I am a
teacher and take money [from my pupils]. This is no
more true than the other. Although if a man is able to
teach, I honor him, for being paid. There is Gorgias of
Leontini, and Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis, who go
the round of the cities, and are able to persuade the young
men to leave their own citizens, by whom they might be
taught for nothing, and come to them, whom they not only
pay, but are thankful if they may be allowed to pay them.
There is actually a Parian philosopher residing in Athens
of whom I have heard; and I came to hear him in this way.
I met a man who has spent a world of money on the Soph-
ists Callias, son of Hipponicus, and knowing he had sons
I asked him: "Callias," I said, "if your two sons were foals
or calves, there would be no difficulty in finding some one to
put over them; we should hire a trainer of horses, or a
farmer probably, who would improve and perfect them in
their own proper virtue and excellence, but as they are
human beings, whom are you thinking of placing over
them? Is there any one who understands human and
political virtue ? "
" There is," he said.
399s.cJ SOCRATES'S APOLOGY 247
u Who is lie ? " said I, " and of what country ; and what
does he charge ? "
"Evenus the Parian/ 5 he replied, "he is the man, and his
charge is five minae" [about $90.00].
Happy is Evenus, I said to myself, if he really has the
wisdom, and teaches for such a modest charge ! Had I the
same, I should hare been very proud and conceited ; but
the truth is I have no knowledge of the kind, Athenians.
WTiat the Delphic Orade said of Socrates
I will refer you to a witness who is worthy of credit and
will tell you about my wisdom, whether I have any and
of what sort, and that witness shall be the God of Delphi.
You must have known Chserephon ; he was early a friend of
mine. Well, Chserephon, as you know, was very impetuous
in all his doings, and he went to Delphi, and boldly asked
the oracle to tell him whether as I was saying I must beg
you not to interrupt 1 he asked the oracle to tell him
" whether there was any one wiser than I was ? " And the
Pythian prophetess answered there was no man wiser.
When I heard the answer, I said to myself, What can the
god mean ? for I know I have no wisdom small or great.
Yet he is a god and cannot lie, that would be against his
nature. After long consideration, I at last thought of a
method of trying the question. I reflected that if I could
only find a man wiser than myself I might go to the god
with the refutation in my hand.
[Socrates, however, after a long search could not find a
truly wise man: many pretended to wisdom in some matters;
but when the arguments of each were run down, they were
clearly unsound], although he was thought wise by many,
and still wiser by himself. And I s swear to you Athenians,
by the dog 2 1 swear ! for I must tell the truth, the result
* Athenian juries were by no means courteous in listening to pleaders.
* A favorite oath of Socrates.
248 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
of my mission was just this : I found that men most in re.
pute were all but the most foolish; and that some inferior
men were really wiser and better. [The Sophists, politicians,
poets, and even artisans were all in like condemnation for
their self-conceit.] . . . And the truth is, Athenians, that
God only is wise, and in the oracle he means to say that the
wisdom of man is little or nothing; he is not speaking of
Socrates, he is only using my name as an illustration, as if
he said, " He, Men, is the wisest, who like Socrates knows
that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing."
Socratetfs Mission in Life
And so I go on my way, obedient to the god, and make
inquisition into the wisdom of any one, whether citizen or
stranger, who appears to be wise ; and if he is not wise, then
in vindication of the oracle, I show him that he is not wise ;
and this occupation quite absorbs me, and I have no time to
give either to any public matter of interest or to any concern
of my own ; for I am in utter poverty by reason of my de-
votion to the god.
There is another thing the young men of the richer
classes, who have not much to do, come to me of their own
accord ; they like to hear the pretenders examined, and they
often imitate me and examine others themselves ; there are
plenty of persons, as they soon discover, who think that
they know something, but really know little or nothing;
and then those who are examined by them instead of being
angry with themselves are angry at me : " This confounded
Socrates ! " they say, "this villainous misleader of youth !"
and then if somebody asks them, " Why, what evil does he
practice and teach ? " They do not know and cannot tell,
[but trump up charges of] teaching things up in the clouds
and under the earth, and having no gods, and " making the
worse appear the better cause," for they do not like to
399 B.C.] SOCRATES'S HOPE OP IMMORTALITY 249
confess that their pretense to knowledge is detected.
[And these are the people who have been supporting the
prosecution against me.]
92. SOCRATES'S ARGUMENT THAT DEATH is NO EVIL
Plato, "Apology of Socrates." Jowett's Translation
The noblest part of Socrates's defense is the conclusion ad-
dressed, after the vote of condemnation, to that large minority of
his judges who voted for his acquittal. It is hard, even veiled in
translation, and after the lapse of twenty-three centuries, to read
it without some responding emotion.
Let us reflect, and we shall see that there is great reason
to hope that death is good, for it is one of two things: either
death is a state of nothingness or utter unconsciousness, or,
as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from
this world to another. Kow if you suppose that there is no
consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is un-
disturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an un-
speakable gain. For if a person were to select the night in
which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams, and were
to compare with this the other days and nights of his life,
and then were to tell us how many days and nights he had
passed in the course of his life, better and more pleasantly
than this one, I think that any man, I will not say a private
man, but even the Great King will not find many such days
or nights when compared with the others. Now if death is
like this, I say that to die is gain, for eternity is then only
a single night.
But if death is a journey to another place, and where, as
men say, all the dead are, what good, my friends and
judges, can be greater than this ? If indeed when the pil-
grim arrives in the world below, he is delivered from the
[mere] professors of justice in this world, and finds the true
judges who are said to give judgment there, Minos and
250 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
Bhadamanthus and JEacus and Triptolemus, and other sons
of God who were righteous in their own life, that pilgrimage
will be worth the making !
What would not a man give if he might converse with
Orpheus and Musseus 1 and Hesiod and Homer? Kay, if
that be true, let me die again and again. I, too, shall have
a wonderful interest in a place where I can converse with
Palamedes and Ajax, the son of Telamon, and other heroes
of old, who have suffered death through an unjust judgment ;
and there will be no small pleasure, as I think, in comparing
my own sufferings with theirs. Above all, I shall be able to
continue my search for true and false knowledge 5 as in this
world, so also in that ; I shall find out who is wise and who
pretends to be wise and is not.
What would not a man give, judges, to be able to ex-
amine the leader of the great Trojan expedition? Or
Odysseus or Sisyphus or numberless others, men and women
too 1 What infinite delight there would be in conversing
with them and asking them questions ! For in that world
they do not put a man to death, certainly not, For be-
sides being happier in that world than in this, they will be
immortal, if what is said is true.
Wherefore, judges, be of good cheer about death, and
know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good
man either in this life or after death. He and his are not
neglected by the gods : nor has my own approaching end
happened by mere chance.
The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways
I to die and you to live. Which is the better, God only
knows*
1 A mythological personage famous as poet and giver of oracles.
423s:cJ THE NEW EDUCATION 251
93. THE OLD AND THE NEW STYLE OF EDUCATION
Aristophanes, " The Clouds," 1. 940 ft., adapted from the Bohn Translation,
vol. I, p. 156
The age of Pericles and the generation following was in every-
thing an age of transition, and in nothing more than education.
It was declared necessary to supplant the old accepted training of
boys in reading, music, and gymnastics, with a course on dialetic and
public speaking, especially with the view of making tonguey orators.
In the comedy of the " Clouds " (about 423 B.C.) Aristophanes
holds the " New School " of education, its teachers and methods,
up to ridicule not always deserved. Aristophanes is unjust, in
this comedy, in representing Socrates as the champion of the
Sophists and their new-fangled dialetic.
[Situation: The " Just " and the " Unjust" arguments, personify-
ing, respectively, the Old and the New-style (Socratic) education are
trying each to persuade Phidippides, an Athenian youth, that their
style of education is the best. The Chorus of " Clouds " is acting
as a kind of umpire between the contestants.]
Chorus. Cease from contention and railing I But show
us, you of the old-style teaching, and you of the new-style,
both of your respective systems, so that after this fellow
has heard, he may decide which school to attend. [Both
agree.] Well who's to speak first ?
Unjust Argument. I'll give him the right of way, and
then from the very facts he adduces Fll shoot him dead with
new arguments and ideas.
[Just Argument at length begins.]
Just. I will now describe the old style of education ; how
it was managed, when I prospered in the advocacy of justice,
and when temperance was the fashion. First of all, not a
boy ought to be heard uttering a syllable ; next, the boys in
the same quarter of the town were obliged to march stripped
and drawn up in order even if the snow was thick as meal
to the house of the harp master. And there the master
252 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
would teach them [some good old tune], not sitting crossed-
legged as now, but raising to a mighty pitch those strains
we learned from our fathers. If anybody acted silly or
turned any quavers, like these difficult turns the artists make
now after the style of Phrynis, 1 he used to get a good hard
thrashing as " banishing the Muses ! "
All the boys then had to sit with their clothes wrapped
decently about them, and not to anoint themselves over-effem-
inately, so that the body bore the aspect of blooming health.
Nor used it to be allowed when one was dining to take the
head of a radish, or snatch from one's elders dill or parsley,
or eat fish, or giggle, or keep the legs crossed. 2
[Unjust Argument here breaks in to intimate all this is " anti-
quated and full of grasshoppers ! "]
Just. Well surely this style of educating nurtured the men
who fought at Marathon. But you teach fellows to-day from
their earliest years to go wrapped up in their outer cloak
[himation]. 8 So, my \>oy,[addressing Phidippides] select me
with confidence: me, the better cause, then you'll learn
to hate [hanging around] the Agora, and keep from baths,
and to be ashamed at what's disgraceful, and get angry if
any one jeers you; and rise from your seat before your
elders when they approach, and not behave ill towards your
parents, and do nothing else that is base, because you are to
form in your mind an image of Modesty, and not dart into
the house of a dancing woman, and not contradict your
father in anything.
[More interruptions and derision by Unjust Argument ; but his
opponent continues.]
And you're sure to spend your time in the wrestling
1 An effeminate poet whom Aristophanes detested.
2 Seemingly the height of 111 manners.
8 It seemed the height of effeminacy for a young man always to go
wrapped up like a grandsire.
423 B.C.] THE NEW EDUCATION 253
schools, sleek and blooming ; you won'tbe chattering rude jests
in the Agora like the boys of to-day ; nor get dragged into
court on some petty, knavish lawsuit. No ; on the contrary
you shall descend to the Academy and run races beneath the
sacred olives along with some modest comrade, crowned
with white reeds, and fragrant with yew ; carelessly at ease,
[or] crowned with the leaf-shedding white poplar, rejoicing in
the season of spring, when the planetree whispers to the elm.
If you do these things as I say, and devote your mind to
them you'll ever have a brawny chest, a clear complexion,
broad shoulders, a little tongue, large hips, and little
vice. But if you do as the youth of to-day do, you'll have
a pale complexion, small shoulders, a narrow chest, a large
tongue, little hips, great vice, and a long public harangue.
And this deceiver here, will persuade you to count every-
thing that is base honorable, and everything that is honor-
able to be base.
[The Chorus thinks Just Argument has made out an excellent
case : but Unjust Argument is not in the least abashed, and pro-
ceeds to refute his opponent.]
Unjust. He will not allow you to be washed in warm
water j and yet why are warm baths to be criticized ?
Just. Because they are most vile and make a man [effem-
inate and] cowardly.
Unjust. Stop ! Here I've caught you by the waist with
no escape. Come, tell me, which of the sons of Zeus do you
consider to have been the bravest in soul and to have under-
gone the most labors ?
Just. I count Heracles first.
Unjust. And where, pray, did you ever see cold Heraclean
baths ? And yet isn't he the most valiant ?
Just. These are the very [kinds of hairsplitting] which
make the baths full of young men all day long, but the pa-
Isestras [wrestling schools] empty.
254 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
Unjust. You next find fault with their living in the Agora ',
but I commend it. If the thing had been bad, Homer would
never have made Nestor an orator, nor all the other wise
men. 1 Again, he says people ought to be modest : but tell
me have you ever seen any good come through modesty ?
[Just Argument here cites some examples from mythology
which his opponent laughs to scorn. Unjust Argument now
turns back to Phidippides.]
Now consider, my fine fellow, all that modesty involves,
and of how many pleasures you are going to be deprived by
it of sweethearts, of games, especially of the cottabus
game, 2 of dainties, of drinking bouts, of giggling. And yet
what's life worth to you without these! Well, I'll pass
to other things. Suppose you give way to some passion,
and get caught in it. If you only associate with me, you
can indulge your appetite all you please, dance, laugh,
and think nothing disgraceful. If you're brought to account,
why, you can just call up the case of Zeus,. even he is
overcome by love and women. And yet how could you a
mortal have greater rectitude than a god ?
Just. But with what argument [after all] is he going to
prove he isn't a blackguard ?
Unjust. And suppose he is, where's the harm ?
Just. Why, what worse could be, than just to be proved
a blackguard ?
Unjust. Whatfll you say, if I outargue you on this point ?
Just. Fll keep still ; what else can I do ?
Unjust. Well tell me now; from what class do the
advocates come ?
Just. From the blackguards.
Unjust. Eight you are; and from what class come the
tragedians ?
1 Who exercised their powers, of course, in the market place.
2 A favorite indoor pastime. See Dictionary of Antiquities*
250 B.C.] GREEK SCHOOL LIFE 255
Just. From the blackguards.
Unjust. Correct indeed ; and from what class come the
public orators ?
Just. From the blackguards.
Unjust. Then you see you are getting confuted. And
look you which class among the audience is the biggest ?
Just. Well Fm looking.
Unjust. And what do you see ?
Just. By the gods ! The blackguards have a big major-
ity ! This fellow, I know him : and yonder one, and
that other fellow with the long hair.
Unjust. Now what are you going to say ?
Just. We are conquered. Ye blackguards, in the Gods'
names, receive my cloak, 1 for I desert to you !
94. A PICTURE OF GREEK SCHOOL LIFE
From the "Third Mime of Herondas." Quoted from a recently discov-
ered papyrus by . J. Freeman, " The Schools of Hellas," pp. 98-100
This quotation from a Greek author of the Alexandrian period
(third century B.o.),is nevertheless in most respects true, probably,
for the earlier classical period. It well illustrates the terrible
cruelty which parents and teachers thought entirely necessary in
dealing with school children. Surely if the ancient civilization
failed, it was not through " sparing the rod " upon the younger
generation !
[A mother, Metrotime', brings her truant boy Cottalus to his
schoolmaster Lampriscus to receive a flogging.]
Metrotim& Flog him Lampriscus,
Across the shoulders, till his wicked soul
Is all but out of him. He's spent my all
In playing odd and even ; knuckle bones
Are nothing to him. Why, he hardly knows
The door of the Letter School. And yet the thirtieth
i Referring to Socrates's usual ceremony of stripping his disciples be-
fore they were initiated into his school.
256 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
Comes round 1 and I must pay tears no excuse.
His writing tablet which I take the trouble
To wax anew each month, lies unregarded
In the corner. If by chance he deigns to touch it
He scowls like Hades, then puts nothing right
But smears it out and out. He doesn't know
A letter, till you scream, it twenty times.
The other day his father made him spell
Maron; the rascal made it Simon: dolt
I thought myself to send him to a school !
Ass-tending is his trade! Another time
We set him to recite some childish piece ;
He sifts it out like water through a crack,
" Apollo " pause, then " hunter ! "
[The poor mother goes on to say that it is useless to scold the
boy ; for, if she does, he promptly runs away from home, to sponge
upon his grandmother, or sits upon the roof out of the way like an
ape, breaking the tiles, which is expensive for his parents.]
Yet he knows
The seventh and the twentieth of the month,
Whole holidays, as if he reads the stars,
He lies awake o'nights dreaming of them.
But, so may yonder Muses prosper you,
Give him in stripes no less than
Lampriscus [briskly]. Right you are,
Here, Euthias, Coccalus, and Phillus hoist him
Upon your backs. I like your goings on,
My boy ! I'll teach you manners ! Where's my strap,
With the stinging cow's tail ?
Cottdlus [in terror]. By the Muses, 2 Sir, Not with the
stinger ?
Lamp. Then you shouldn't be so naughty.
1 The time for paying the monthly school fees.
2 The Moses were the proper deities to invoke in a school.
347 B.C.] THE WILL OF PLATO 257
Cott. 0, how many will you give me t
Lamp. Your mother fixes that.
Cott. How many, mother ?
Metr. As many as your wicked hide can bear.
[They proceed with the flogging]
Cott. Stop ! That's enough ! Stop !
Lamp. You should stop your ways.
Cott. Pll never do it more, I promise you.
Lamp. Don't talk so much, or else I'll bring a gag,
Cott. I won't talk, only do not kill me, please I
Lamp, [at length relenting] Let him down, boys.
Metr. No leather him till sunset.
Lamp. Why, he's as mottled as a water snake.
Metr. Well, when he's done his reading, good or bad,
Give him a trifle more, say twenty strokes.
Cott. [in agony]. Yah!
Metr. [turning away]. Pll go home and get a pair of
fetters.
Our Lady Muses, whom he scorned, shall see
Their scorner hobble here with shackled feet. 1
95. THE WILL OF THE PHILOSOPHER PLATO
Diogenes Laertius," Life of Plato." Bohn's Translation
The philosophy of Plato Socrates's favorite pupil .did not
prevent him from enjoying temporal comforts. The copy of bis
will here given (he died in 347 B.C.) is interesting, both as show-
ing that the author of the immortal " Dialogues " was possessed of
a very tolerable worldly estate, and as an example generally of
1 It is at least doubtful whether in good Athenian schools such brutali-
ties as gags and fetters would he used. As to the cruel floggings, there is
not the least doubt. " The soldiers felt towards him as schoolboys toward
their master," wrote Xenophon (Anabasis, book II, chap. 6:12) of the
Lacedaemonian general Clearchus, a man famous as a severe and forbid-
ding martinet.
258 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
how a Greek gentleman might dispose of his property. It also
shows how carefully the Athenians had developed the questions of
boundaries between private farms.
Plato left this property, and has bequeathed it as fol-
lows : The farm in the district of the Hephaestiades bounded
on the north by the road from the temple of the Cephiciades
and on the south by the temple of Heracles, which is in the
district of the Hephaestiades ; and on the east by the es-
tate of Arche stratus the Phrsenian, and on the west by
the farm of Philip the Challidian, shall be incapable of be-
ing sold or alienated, but shall belong to my son Ademantu's
as far as possible. And so likewise shall my farm in the
district of the Eiresides, which I bought of Callimachus,
which is bounded on the north by the property of Euryme-
don the Myrrhinusian, on the south by that of Demostratus
of Xypeta, and on the east by that of Eurymedon the Myr-
rhinusian, and on the west by the Cephisus [river], I also
leave him [niy son] three ininsB of silver, a silver goblet,
weighing 165 drachmae, and a golden earring, weighing to-
gether four drachmae and three obols. Euclides the stone-
cutter owes me three minse [payable to my heirs]. I leave
Artemis [one of my female slaves] her liberty. My slaves
Sychon, Bictas, Appolloniades, and Dionysus I bequeath
to my son, and I also give him all my furniture, of which
Demetrius has a list. I owe no one anything. My execu-
tors shall be Tozthenes, Speusippus, Demetrius, Hegias,
Eurymedon, Callimachus, and Thrasippus.
96. THE HEALING OF PLTTTUS
Aristophanes, " Plutus," 1. 660 ff., adapted from the Bohn Translation,
vol. II, p. 719
The method of healing by means of a dream dictating the cure,
or by a direct visit from the god, was claimed as a favorite remedy
by the priests of Asclepeius, who posed as the heads of the medical
profession. What their system was supposed to be, is explained
388 B.C.] THE HEALING OF PLUTUS 259
in Aristophanes's comedy of " Plutus " (about 388 B.C.). The poet
comes dangerously near to what to the pious would seem to be
blasphemy. Whatever the comic aspects of the case, however,
"sleeping in the temple" probably wrought a good deal of benefit
as c healing by suggestion ' ; and the priests of Asclepeius were by
no means mere charlatans.
[Situation . The god Plutus (Riches) has been taken to the
temple of Asclepeius, where he is healed of his blindness, and on
the restoring of sight he is able to distribute his riches to those who
deserve them. The process of healing is narrated by Oario, the
slave of Ohremylus, who has undertaken the restoring of Plutus.]
As soon as we came to the god [Asclepeius] conveying
[this] man once so miserable, but now so blessed and fortu-
nate, first we took him down to the sea and gave him a bath. 1
Then we went up to the temple. And when our cakes and
preparatory sacrifices had been pnt on the fire, we laid Plutus
on a couch, as was the proper way, while each of us began
putting his own mattress in order.
Questioner. Wasn't there anybody else there, who needed
the god?
Carlo. Of course: Neoclides 2 was there, who is blind,
but in stealing outdoes anybody who can see; and a lot
more with all kinds of ills. But when the sacristan of the
god put out the lamps, he ordered us to "go to sleep," and
told us that anybody hearing a noise was to keep himself
still : then we all laid down in an orderly way. But I just
couldn't sleep. There was a pot of porridge, not far from
the head of an old woman. [The smell] of it wrought on
me mightily. I wanted extremely to creep [and get it].
Then on peeking out, I saw the priest snatching away the
cakes and dried figs from the holy table. And then he made
a round of all the altars, to see if there was a cake left; and
then he "consecrated" these into a sack! And I im
1 Interruptions by the interlocutor are here omitted.
2 A character charged with embezzlement of public funds at Athens.
260 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
agining this was vast piety got up closer towards the pot
of porridge.
Questioner. Daring fellow ! Weren't you afraid of the
god?
Cario. Yes, by all the gods I was lest he get the pot
before me ! The old woman, when she heard my noise,
reached out her hand, then I hissed and seized it with my
teeth, as if I were one of Asclepeius's [holy] snakes. Back
she drew her hand and lay down, wrapping herself up quietly,
all in a fright. Then I bolted most of the porridge, and when
I was chock full of it, I lay back to rest.
[The god Asclepeius was now supposed to come in, inspect the
patients, and decide upon their cure : Cario continues.]
I covered myself up in fear, while he went the circuit in-
specting all the patients carefully. Then a servant set be-
fore him a small stone mortar, and a pestle and a small
chest.
Questioner. Pest on you ! How did you see him if you
were all wrapped up ?
Carto. Through my little threadbare cloak, for, by Zeus,
it's got a lot of holes ! First of all he began to pound up a
plaster for Neoclides, having thrown in three heads of
Teneian garlic. Then he began to beat them up in a mortar
mixing along with them gum and squill; and then he
moistened it with Sphettan vinegar, and spread it over [the
patient's eyes], first turning his eyelids inside out that he
might hurt him more. Neoclides, crying and bawling,
jumped up and ran away, while the god laughed and ex-
claimed : " Sit there now ; plastered all as you are ! Then
you're stopped from excusing yourself by an oath from at-
tending the Assembly." l
After that he sat down beside Plutus. First he handled
his head, and then he took a clean napkin and wiped all
1 I.e. Now you have a valid excuse.
465 B.C.] PINDAR'S ELYSIUM 261
round his eyelids. Also Panacea [Asclepeius's daughter
and attendant] covered his head and the whole of his face
with a purple cloth. Whereupon the god whistled, and
two monstrous snakes rushed forth from the temple.
Questioner. Oh, ye merciful gods !
Carlo. Well : these two snakes crept, gently under the
purple cloth and began to lick his eyelids all around. At
least so it seemed to me. Before you could have turned
down ten pots of wine, Plutus was standing up, and could
see all right! I clapped my hands with joy and began to
wake my master. As for Asclepeius, he at once faded from
sight, and the snakes whisked into the temple ; while as for
those who were on the beds near by you can't imagine how
they began to hug Plutus, and actually kept awake all night
until the day dawned. Oh ! how I praise the god because
he made Plutus see so quickly, and yet made Neoclides
blinder than ever.
[At this point a great crowd bring in Plutus, who speedily be-
gins to scatter his benefits upon the deserving.]
97. PINDAR'S PICTURE OF THE ELYSIUM OF THE
RIGHTEOUS
Translated in Felton's " Ancient and Modern Greece," vol. I, p. 195
The early Greeks had only a very faint belief in immortality :
the dead became " strengthless shades," mere shadows of their
former selves in the drear underworld of Hades. In the fifth
century B.O., however, we find the advanced thinkers of Greece
devoting themselves earnestly to the eternal problem. It is likely
that the famous " Mysteries " of Eleusis had their chief appeal in
the hope which they extended to the righteous of a happy here-
after ; and of a corresponding punishment for the wicked. What
the great poet of Thebes conceived to be the lot of the good is
illustrated in these lines. We have here also, even in translation,
.a fairly good example of the extremely elaborate schemes of versi-
fication employed by Pindar.
262 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
O'er the good, soft suns the while
Through the mild day and night serene,
Alike with cloudless luster smile
Tempering all the tranquil scene.
Theirs is leisure ; vex not they
Stubborn soil or watery way,
To wring from toil, want's worthless bread;
No ills they know, no tears they shed,
But with the glorious gods below
Ages of peace contented share.
Meanwhile the bad, with bitterest woe,
Eye-startling tasks and endless tortures bear.
All those whose steadfast virtue thrice
Each side the grave unchanged hath stood,
Still unseduced, unstained with vice,
They by Zeus's mysterious road
Pass to Cronos's realm of rest,
Happy isle that holds the blest,
Where sea-born breezes gently blow
O'er blooms of gold that round them glow,
Which nature, boon from sea or strand
Or goodly tree profusely showers;
Whence pluck they many a fragrant band,
And braid their locks with never fading flowers.
98. HIPPOCRATES AND GREEK MEDICAL SCIENCE
From Felton's " Ancient and Modern Greece," vol. I, p. 412 ff.
A modern writer, the late President Felton of Harvard Univer-
sity, has given us this summary of Greek Medical Science, center-
ing it around the work of Hippocrates (born about 460 B.C. at the
island of Cos). Hippocrates was the most distinguished physi-
cian of antiquity, and while modern surgeons and physicians
would be horrified at some of his teachings, there is little doubt
that, thanks to practical common sense, experience, and a profound
410 B.C.] GREEK MEDICAL SCIENCE 263
knowledge of human nature, he and his disciples were able often
to cure even complicated cases. Ancient medicine often degener-
ated into the vilest quackery, but at its best it was far from
contemptible.
The former notion that the ancients were ignorant of
anatomy, except so far as a knowledge of it might be gained
by examining the skeletons of animals, appears at present
abandoned in its absolute form. It is true that the religious
respect entertained for the bodies of the dead by the Greeks
interfered with this study ; but there was a tradition that
the Asclepiadse of Cos possessed a human skeleton, which
was used in the instruction of their pupils, and which was
finally bequeathed to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. . . .
The works of Hippocrates display a wonderfully minute
knowledge of osteology; [but not of physiology]. . . .
There were peculiar opportunities for surgical practice in
Greece, so far as external wounds were concerned, ow-
ing to the national passion for contests in the games. Acci-
dents of a serious nature were constantly occurring ; and the
services of a skillful surgeon in setting fractured bones and
reducing dislocations were very often needed. The processes
are minutely described [by Hippocrates] and in several cases
are exactly the same as those in use at the present day.
The description of the latreion, or Surgery, contains com-
plete directions for the operator, the patient, and the assist-
ants, the instruments, the adjustment of the light, the
position of the patient, the kinds of bandages, etc., all told
with a clearness and precision, which, to an unprofessional
reader at least, appear very remarkable. Thus of bandaging
Hippocrates says :
"It should be done quickly, painlessly, neatly, and ele-
gantly: quickly, by dispatching the work; painlessly, by
being gently done; neatly, by having everything in readi-
ness, and elegantly, so that it may be agreeable to the sight." l
i No slight matter to a finicky Hellene.
264 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
Again he says, " The suspending of a fractured limb in a
sling, the disposition of it, and the bandaging, all have the
object to keep it in place."
Hippocrates was a keen observer; some of his aphorisms
apply to more persons than physicians, thus :
" Life is short, art is long ; the occasion fleeting, experi-
ment is fallacious, and judgment difficult. The physician
must be prepared not only to do what is right himself, but
to make the patient and the attendants cooperate."
"Old persons endure fasting most easily; next adults,
young persons not nearly so well ; least of all infants ; and
least of them, those that are of a particularly lively spirit."
" Both sleep and wakefulness when immoderate are bad."
"Neither repletion nor fasting, nor anything else is good
when more than natural,"
" When in a state of hunger one ought not to undertake
hard work."
" Persons who are naturally very fat are apt to die earlier
than those who are slender."
Hippocrates also gives sample cases which he has treated,
and reports the symptoms, e.g. :
" Criton of Thasos, while still on foot, and going about,
was seized with a violent pain in the great toe ; took to his
bed the same day ; at night was delirious. On the second
day, swelling of the whole foot and acute fever; became
furiously deranged ; died the second day from the beginning."
" In Thasos, Philistes had a headache of long continuance,
and sometimes was confined to his bed, with a tendency to
deep sleep ; having been seized with continual fevers from
deep drinking, the pain was exacerbated. ... On the second
day deafness; acute fever . . . delirium about midday.
On the third was in an uncomfortable state. On the fourth
convulsions; all the symptoms exacerbated. On the fifth
early in the morning he died."
400 B.C.] AN ATHENIAN HOME 265
99. XENOPHON'S PIOTUBB OF AN IDEAL HOUSEHOLD
Xenophon, "The. Economist," VH, Dakyn's Translation, vol. HI, part 1,
p. 225 ff.
What the life of a high-bred Athenian lady was conceived to
be at its best is set forth in this charming pen picture drawn
by Xenophon, the well-known pupil of Socrates. Athenian
women were held in careful repression. Komantic marriages
were almost out of the question. Nevertheless, the position of
a lady of good family was not an undignified one, and she was
far from being merely the inmate of an Oriental harem. Very
likely she would be given in marriage by her parents when she
was too young to have any intelligent will of her own. Her
husband was usually a mature man who would hardly look to
his girl wife for any form of intellectual companionship. If, how-
ever, he was a man of truly refined instincts, it is probable enough
he would come to treat his wife with much consideration and
calm affection, and shield her from any kind of indignity. Of
course in this essay Xenophon is setting forth what he conceives
to have been an ideal marital relation : still he is drawing an ideal
he assumes to be capable of realization in matter-of-fact Athens,
not in a distant Utopia. Incidentally this extract gives consider-
able insight into the management of Attic homes early in the
fourth century B.C.
The story is supposed to be narrated by Socrates.
It chanced one day that I saw my friend Ischomachus
seated in the portico of Zeus Eleutherios [in the Athenian
agora], and as he seemed to be at leisure I went up to him,
and sitting down by his side, accosted him : " How is
this ? As a rule, when I see you, you are doing something,
or at any rate not sitting idle in the market place."
" Nor would you see me now so sitting, Socrates," said
he, " except that I had promised to meet some strangers,
friends of mine, here."
" And when you are not so employed," said I, " where,
in heaven's name, do you spend your time, and how do you
266 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
employ yourself ? I am truly very anxious to know from
your own lips by what conduct you have earned for your-
self the title < beautiful and good ' ? "
[Ischomachus laughed at the compliment, and said that
when he was called on for any public service] " nobody thinks
of asking for the * beautiful and good ' gentleman, it is plain
c Ischomachus the son of so-and-so' on whom the process
is served. But I certainly . . . do not spend my days indoors,
if for no other reason than because my wife can manage all
our domestic affairs without my aid."
" Ah ! " said I, " and that is just what I dearly want to
learn about. Did you educate your wife yourself, to be all
that a wife should be, or [when you married her] was she
already proficient ? "
Well skilled ? " he replied, why, what skill was she
likely to bring with her ? Not yet fifteen when she married
me, and during her whole previous life most carefully
trained to see and hear as little as possible, and to ask the
fewest questions. Shouldn't anybody be satisfied, if at
marriage her whole experience consisted in knowing how
to take wool and make a dress and see that her mother's
handwomen had their daily spinning tasks assigned ? For
(he added) as regards control of appetite and self-indul-
gence, she had the soundest education, and that I take it
is the chief thing in the bringing up of man or woman."
"Then all else, (said I) you taught your wife yourself,
Ischomachus, until you had made her capable of attending
carefully to her proper duties ? ;;
"That I did not do (he replied) until I had offered sacri-
fice, and prayed that I might teach, and she might learn
all that could conduce to the happiness of us twain."
Socrates. And did your wife join you in the sacrifice
and prayer to that effect ?
Isch. Most certainly, and with many a vow registered
to heaven to become all that she ought to be.
400 B.C.] AN ATHENIAN HOME 267
[Socrates now asks Ischomachus to tell how be educated his
wife.]
"Why, Socrates (he answered), when after a time she
had been accustomed to my hand, that is, tamed sufficiently
to play her part in a discussion, I put her this question,
1 Did you ever stop to consider, dear wife, what led me
to choose you, and your parents to intrust you to me ? It
was surely not because either of us would have any trouble
in finding another consort. No ! it was with deliberate
intent, I for myself, and your parents for you, to discover
the best partners of house and children we could find. . . .
If at some future time God grant us children, we will take
counsel together how best to bring them up, for that, too,
will be a common interest, and a common blessing if haply
they live to fight our battles and we find in them hereafter
support and succor for ourselves. But at present here
is our house, which belongs to both alike. It is common
property, for all that I own goes by my will to the common
fund, and in the same way was deposited your dowry.
We need not stop to calculate in figures which it is of us
who has contributed the most: rather let us lay to heart
the fact that whichever of us proves the better partner,
he or she at once contributes what is most worth having. 3 "
[Ischomachus's wife now asks more particularly what her duties
are to be ; and her husband answers :]
" You will need to stay indoors, and dispatch to their toils
such of your servants whose work lies outside the house.
Those whose duties are indoors you will manage. It will
be your task to receive the stuffs brought in, to apportion
part for daily use, and to make provision for the rest, to
guard and garner it so that the outgoings destined for a year
may not be expended in a month. It will be your duty when
the wools are brought in, to see that clothing is made for
those who have need. You must also see that the dried
268 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
corn is made fit and serviceable for food. Then, too, there
is something else not altogether pleasing. If any of the
household fall sick, it will be your care to see and tend
them to the recovery of their health."
Wife. Nay, that will be my pleasantest task, if only
careful nursing can touch the springs of gratitude and leave
them friendlier than before. . . . But mine would be a
ridiculous guardianship and distribution of things indoors
without your provident care to see that the importations
from without are duly made.
Isch. Just so, and mine would be a pretty piece of busi-
ness, if there were no one to guard what I brought in. Do
you not see how pitiful is the case of those unfortunates
who pour water into their sieves forever, as the story goes,
and labor but in vain ?
Wife. Pitiful enough, poor souls, if that is what they do.
Isch. But there are other cares, you know, and occupations,
which are yours by right, and these you will find agreeable.
This, for instance, to take 'some girl who knows nothing
of carding wool, and to make her skillful in the art, dou-
bling her usefulness ; or to receive another quite ignorant of
housekeeping or of service, and to render her skillful, loyal,
serviceable, till she is worth her weight in gold ; or again,
when occasion serves, you have it in your power to requite
by kindness -the well-behaved whose presence is a blessing
to your house; or maybe to chasten the bad character,
should such appear. But' the greatest joy of all will be to
prove yourself my better; to make me your faithful fol-
lower; knowing no dread lest as the years advance you
should decline in honor in the household, but rather trust-
ing that though your hair turn gray, yet in proportion as.
you come to be a better helpmate to myself and to the
children, a better guardian of our home, so will your honor
increase throughout the household as mistress, wife, and
mother, daily more dearly prized.
400 B.C.] AN ATHENIAN HOME 269
[The wife carried out Ischomachus's instructions marvelously
well : later they undertook to go through the house together, with
a view to putting it in the best of order.]
Isch. [continuing"]. We proceeded to set apart the orna-
ments and holiday attire of the wife, and the husband's
clothing both for festivals and war : the bedding both for
the women's and for the men's apartments; next the shoes
and sandals for them both. There was one division devoted
to arms and armor, another to instruments used for carding
wool, another to implements for making bread; another for
cooking utensils, one for what we use in the bath, another for
the things that go with the kneading trough, another for the
service of the table. . . . We selected and set aside the sup-
plies required for the month, and under a separate head we
stored away what we computed would be needed for the
year.
[Ischomachus adds that at another time he told his wife not to
use cosmetics, nor to think that she made her face more handsome,
with white enamel or rouge, and to leave off high-heeled shoes :
she promised to comply, but asked her husband if he could ad-
vise her how she might become not a false show, but really fair to
look upon ? To which he replied :]
Do not be forever seated like a slave, but, with Heaven's
help, to assume the attitude of a true mistress standing before
the loom, and where your knowledge gives you the superiority,
there give the aid of your instruction, and where your knowl-
edge fails, as bravely try to learn. I counsel you to oversee
the baking woman as she makes the bread ; to stand beside the
housekeeper as she measures out her stores : to go on tonrs of
inspection to see if all things are in order as they should be.
Por, as it seems to me, this will be at once walking exercise
and supervision. And as an excellent gymnastic I urge you
to knead the dough, and roll the paste ; to shake the cover-
lets and make the beds ; and if you train yourself in exercise
270 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS
of this sort you will enjoy your food, grow vigorous in health^
and your complexion will in very truth be lovelier. The
very look and aspect of the wife, the mistress, seen in ri-
valry with that of her attendants, being as she is at once
more fair and more becomingly adorned, has an attractive
charm, and not the less because her acts are acts of grace,
not services enforced. Whereas your ordinary fine lady,
seated in solemn state, would seem to court comparison with
painted counterfeits of womanhood.
[Ischomachus concludes by saying to Socrates], And I
would have you to know that still to-day my wife is living
in a style as that which I taught her, and now recount to
you.
How an Athenian Gentleman passed his Morning
Ischomachus, who has narrated to Socrates how he trained up
his wife to be a model helpmate, tells how he spends his own time
in the morning and leads the life of a very prosperous and success-
* ful Athenian gentleman.
" Why, then, Socrates, my habit is to rise from bed be-
times, when I may still expect to find at home this, that, or
the other friend whom I may wish to see. Then, if anything
has to be done in town, I set off to transact the business and
make that my walk ; or if there is no business to transact
in town, my serving boy leads on my horse to the farm ; I
follow, and so make the country road my walk, which suits
my purpose quite as well or better, Socrates, perhaps, than
pacing up and down the colonnade [in the city]. Then when
I have reached the farm, where mayhap some of my men
are planting trees, or breaking fallow, sowing, or getting in.
the crops, I inspect their various labors with an eye to every
detail, and whenever I can improve upon the present system,
I introduce reform.
"After this, usually I mount my horse and take a canter.
400 B.C.] AN ATHENIAN HOME 271
I put him through his paces, suiting these, so far as possible,
to those inevitable in war, in other words, I avoid neither
steep slope, nor sheer incline, neither trench nor runnel, only
giving my uttermost heed the while so as not to lame my horse
while exercising him. When that is over, the boy gives the
horse a roll, and leads him homeward, taking at the same
time from the country to town whatever we may chance to
need. Meanwhile I am off for home, partly walking, partly
running, and having reached home I take a hath and give
myself a rub, and then I breakfast, a repast that leaves
me neither hungry nor overfed, and will suffice me through
the day."
CHAPTER VIII
FROM ^GOSPOTAMI TO CEL3SRONEIA
The period following the downfall of the Athenian Empire pre-
sents fewer matters of political interest than the age immediately
preceding. Athens was still the center of abounding intellectual
activity, but her strength for all material enterprises had been
sadly sapped by the Peloponnesian War. The only really first-rate
political event was the overthrow of the Spartan power by Thebes,
although this was very largely due to the personal ability of Epam-
inondas, and Thebes lost much of her military importance on the
day of his death. In the meantime, Demosthenes was coming to
prominence at Athens, and was trying to rouse his fellow-citizens
to a consciousness of the fact that a great peril was menacing the
liberties of all Greece the rise of Macedonia.
A few extracts, drawn from very diverse sources, are given here
to illustrate some of the leading events of this so-called " last age
of Greek Freedom."
100. How LTSIAS ESCAPED PROM THE "THIRTY"
From Lysias's " Oration against Eratosthenes "
Lysias the Orator, in the course of a legal arraignment of Era-
tosthenes, one of the so-called " Thirty Tyrants " of Athens (404-
403), gives the following graphic and interesting account of his
own escape from murder at the hands of these oligarchs, and of
the circumstances of his brother's arrest and execution. No more
vivid picture has come to us of the miserable condition of things
which prevailed at Athens in the year following the disastrous
ending of the Peloponnesian War. It should be remembered that
the " Thirty " boasted themselves as belonging to the " Noble and
the Good" i.e. to the educated and intelligent class, and that
they were intending to set up a government far superior to the
272
404 B.C.] THE ESCAPE OF LYSIAS 273
mob rule of " Zing Demos." It is not surprising that after this
year of agony Athens remained firmly attached to democracy so
long as she retained her independence.
My father, gentlemen of the jury, was induced to
come to this land by Pericles, and here be lived for thirty
years. During this time neither he nor we brought any suit
against anybody, nor were sued ourselves ; . in short, under
the democratic government [before the rule of the Thirty]
we so lived that we never wronged anybody, nor did any-
body wrong us. But when the Thirty, villains and syco-
phants that they were ! came into power, they asserted
that they must " clear the city of evildoers, and turn .the
rest of the citizens to virtue and justice." Such were their
professions : their performance was quite contrary, as I
both for your sakes and mine will venture to remind you.
It came to pass that Theognis and Piso speaking among
the Thirty asserted that divers of the metics 1 were very
dissatisfied with the existing [revolutionary] government,
so, said they, here was a good pretext to try to punish
them, but really to get hold of their money, " For the city
was direfully poor, and the government needed funds.".
Without difficulty they persuaded their colleagues ; for they
thought it a thing of no moment at all to kill men, though
to seize their money was of capital importance. Therefore
they decided to arrest ten metics, of these two were to
be poor men, so that they might allege that they had not
seized the others for lucre, but for the public weal, as if
they were acting out of sheer patriotism !
Accordingly they distributed men around the houses of
their victims for the purpose of making the arrests. As
for me [Lysias], they found me in the act of entertaining
some guests, whom they drove out of the house, and put me
in the custody of Piso, while the others going into the work-
i Resident aliens who did not have the rights of citizenship.
274 FROM ^BGOSPOTAMI TO CELERONEIA
shop l took an inventory of the slaves. In the meantime I
asked Piso [while the rest were away] if he would take a
bribe and save me? "Yes," he said, "if it is a right big
one!" Therefore I told him that I was ready to give a
talent of silver (over $1000), and he agreed to carry out his
end of the bargain. I knew that he feared neither gods nor
men, still, in the existing crisis, I thought it absolutely need-
ful to make a compact with him. Then he swore, in-
voking ruin upon himself and his children, if he failed to
save me, provided I gave him a talent. Whereupon I went
to my private chamber, and opened the chest there. When
Piso saw this he came in, looked into the chest, and sum-
moning two of his servants ordered them to take possession
of the contents. But he was far, gentlemen of the jury,
from sticking to the sum agreed upon. Three talents of
silver he took, four hundred " cyziceni," a hundred darics,
and four bowls of silver. I begged him to give me some-
thing for my traveling expenses, 2 he simply told me I
ought to rejoice if I saved my skin !
When Piso and I started to leave the house, Melobius and
Mnesitheides [Piso's associates] met us returning from the
workshop. They overtook us just at the door, and asked
where we were going. Piso said, to my [Lysias's] brother's
house, to see what property was there. They told him to
go along, but bade me come with them to Damnippus's house;
whereupon Piso -approached me, and bade me keep silence
and be of good cheer, for he was going to the same place,
too. 8
At Damnippus's house we found Theognis guarding the
other prisoners 5 they turned me over to him and then went
1 Evidently closely attached to Lysias's residence.
2 Lysias had already resigned himself to fleeing into exile.
8 Piso had how good reason to try to keep Lysias's courage up ; if the
prisoner became desperate, he might reveal how Piso had been plundering
in private, and Piso be forced to share with his fellows.
404 B.C.] THE ESCAPE OF LYSIAS 275
back. I was now in such a case that it seemed wise for
ine to take any kind of a risk, as if death were already im
minent So I called Damnippus, and spoke to this effect :
" You are a friend of mine, and here I am at your house. I
have done nothing wrong, but I am on the point of being
killed, just on account of my property. Considering my
miserable plight, pray in kindness use your influence to
secure my deliverance." This he promised on his part to
do, but he considered it wiser to mention how the case lay
to Theognis, for he thought " Theognis would do anything,
if one would but give him some money/'
However, while he was talking with Theognis, now I
chanced to be well acquainted with the house, and knew
that there were two doors, it seemed the only thing for
me to do was to try to save myself unaided, considering
that if I could escape undetected, I was safe; if I was
stopped, still I could escape if Damnippus induced Theognis
to take a bribe, but [if everything failed] I could only die
just the same. With such motives, then, while they were
stationing a guard at the hall door, I fled by another way.
There were three doors through which I had to pass, but
they all chanced to be open. I got to the house of Arche-
neus the shipmaster, and I sent him to the town 1 to learn
about the fate of my brother [Polemarchus] : presently he
came back with the news that Eratosthenes [a member of
the Thirty] had arrested him while on the road, and haled
him off to prison. When I had ascertained these facts, on
the next night I escaped by sea to Megara. 2
As for Polemai?flhus, the Thirty gave the command, so
usual with them ! that he must drink the hemlock poison.
They never told him of the nature of the accusation for
which he was to die, though much he desired a trial, and a
A The shipmaster evidently lived down in the harbor town in the Hw&us.
and Lysias induced him to up into the " City."
8 A convenient refuge, of course, for Athenian exiles.
276 FROM ^BGOSPOTAMI TO CILERONEIA
chance to make his defense. When he was dead and they
took. his body out of the prison, though our family owned
three houses, the authorities would not let the funeral take
place, from any of them. They simply hired a bier, and
laid him out on it. There was plenty of clothing [in our
confiscated dwellings] but they gave none to us [his rela-
tives] though we requested it. So his friends gave one a
mantle, and another a pillow, and so on, just as each one
happened to have them, for his funeral.
Although we had seven hundred shields belonging to us, 1
together with gold, silver, brass ornaments, furniture, and
women's clothing far beyond what [the Tyrants] had ex r
pected, also one hundred and twenty slaves, of whom
they took the best, and flung the others into prison, their
insatiable avarice reached such a pitch, that they made a
veritable exhibition of their true characters, for actiially
Melobius took from the ears of the wife of Polemarchus,
the gold earrings which she chanced to wear, and that,
too, just as soon as he had entered her house. In not the
least respect was our property spared by them. They
wronged us thus on account of our wealth, as other ene-
mies would on account of great injuries, although we had
done nothing to deserve such treatment at the hands of the
government, but had paid the cost of all the choruses, and
many taxes, and had been law-abiding persons in every way.
We had had no private enemies, and we had freed many
Athenian citizens [by paying their ransoms] from their
enemies.
101. TRAITS AKD CHARACTER OF EPAMINONDAS
Cornelius BTepos " Life of Epaminondas," Selections. Bohxi Translation
Epaminondas (died 362 <B.C.) was one of the noblest and ablest
of all the Hellenes. Boeotia was counted as unprolific in great
personalities, but Athens never produced a statesman of more
370 B.C.] CHARACTER OF EPAMINONDAS 277
unblemished integrity and patriotism, or greater capacity for or-
ganizing men and handling them on the battle field. He was a
real genius in the military art, breaking away from the conventions
of the old-style Laconian drillmasters, and developing new tactics
that were later perfected by Philip and Alexander. It was due
largely to Epaminondas that Sparta was deposed from that
hegemony of Hellas which she had so long held and abused.
Epaminondas was the son of Polyninis, and was born at
Thebes. He was of an honorable family, though left poor . . .
but he was among the best educated among the Thebans ;
be had been taught to play the harp and to sing to its ac-
companiment by Dionysius [a famous musician], to play
the flute by Olympiodorus, and to dance by Calliphron.
For his instructor in philosophy he had Lysis of Tarentum,
a Pythagorean, to whom he was so devoted that young as
he was he preferred the society of a grave and austere old
man, instead of companions of his own age ; nor did he part
with him until he had so far excelled his fellow students in
learning, that it might easily be seen that in the same way
he would excel in other pursuits.
After he grew up and began to apply himself to gymnastic
exercises, he studied not so much to increase the strength
as the agility of his body; for he thought that strength
suited the purposes of wrestlers, but that agility conduced
to excellence in war. He used to exercise himself very
much, therefore, in running and wrestling, as long as he'
could grapple, and contend standing with his adversary.
But he spent most of his labor upon martial exercises.
To the strength of body thus acquired were added many
good qualities of mind ; for he was modest, prudent, grave,
wisely availing himself of opportunities, skilled in war,
brave in action, and of remarkable courage. He was so
great a lover of truth that he would not tell a falsehood,
even in jest ; he was also master of his passions, gentle in
disposition, submitting to wrong not merely from the
278 FROM ^SGOSPOTAMI TO CH^SRONEIA
[Theban] people, but from his own friends. 1 He was a re-
markable keeper of secrets, a quality no less serviceable
sometimes tlian ability to speak eloquently. ... He bore
poverty so easily that he received nothing [in way of re-
ward] from his [native Theban] state save glory. He did
not avail himself of the means of his friends to maintain
himself, but he often used his credit to relieve others to
such a degree that it might be thought all things were in
common between him and his friends ; for when any one of
his countrymen had been taken by the enemy, or when the
marriageable daughter of a friend could not be married for
lack of a dowry, he used to call a council of his friends and
to prescribe how much each should give according to his
means [toward the dowry or ransom].
He was also remarkably free from covetousness, as is
shown when the envoy of King Artaxerxes the Persian
came to Thebes to bribe Epaminondas with five talents [to
get the Thebans to help the king], but Epaminondas said
to him : " There is no need for money in this matter : for
if the King desires what is for the good of the Thebans, I
am ready to do it for nothing; if otherwise, he has not silver
and gold enough to move me, for I would not exchange the
riches of the whole world for my love for my country. You,
who have tried me thus without knowing my character,
and who have thought, me like yourself I do not blame
and I forgive you ; but quit the city at once, lest you corrupt
others, though unable to corrupt me." 2
' He was also an able speaker, so that no Theban was a
match for him in eloquence; nor was his language less
pointed in brief replies than elegant in an elaborate speech.
[At the battle of Mantinea, while his Boaotians were win-
1 Note that Nepos does not add " and from his enemies "--that would
have been beyond Graeco-Roman virtue.
a Epaminondas would seem thus to be aware of the painful venality of
very many of his f ellow Hellenes a national weakness.
371 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 279
ning the day, he was mortally wounded by a javelin] : when
he saw that if he drew out the iron head of the dart he
would instantly die, he kept it in until they told him " that
the Boeotians were victorious." " I have lived long enough/'
he then said, "for I die unconquered." The iron head was
then extracted, and at once he died.
He was never married, and when blamed on that account
[since he would leave no children] he said: "I cannot want
for posterity. For I leave behind me a daughter, the
victory of Leuctra, that must of necessity not merely sur-
vive me, but be immortal ! "
102. THE BATTLE OF LEUCTRA
Xenophon, "Hellenica," book VI, chap. IV. Dakyn's Translation
In 371 B.O. at Leuctra, in Boeotia, on the road from Platsea to
Thespiae, the Thebans met and defeated the Spartans. The latter
never recovered from the blow this disaster gave to their prestige.
It was poetic justice that this punishment for their ill rule should
come from Thebes the city they had used shamefully beyond all
others. The credit for the victory falls to Epaminondas, though
he is not named by the historian Xenophon, who as a warm ad-
mirer of the Spartans was not anxious to glorify their most for-
midable enemy.
When the Spartan king [Cleombrotus] observed that the
Thebans, so far from giving autonomy to the Boeotian city
states [as demanded], were not even disbanding their army
and had clearly the purpose of fighting a . general engage-
ment, he felt justified in marching his troops into Boeotia
[from Phocis 'where he had been]. The point of ingress
which he adopted was not that which the Thebans expected
from Phocis, and where they were keeping a guard at a de-
file, but marching through Thisbse, by a hilly and unsus-
pected route, he arrived before Creusis, taking that fortress
and twelve Theban war ships to boot. After this, he ad-
280 FROM ^EJGOSPOTAMI TO CH^IRONEIA
vanced from the seaboard, and encamped in Leuctra in
Thespian territory. The Thebans encamped on a rising
ground immediately opposite at no great distance, and were
supported by no allies, save their [fellow] Boeotians.
At this juncture the friends of Cleombrotus came to him
and urged upon him strong reasons for delivering battle.
" If you let the Thebans escape without fighting," they said,
" you will run great risks of suffering the extreme penalty
at the hands of the state. . . . [In times past you have
missed doing anything notable, and let good chances slip.]
If you have any care for yourself, or any attachment to
your fatherland, march you must against the enemy." Thus
spoke his friends, and his enemies remarked, "Now our fine
fellow will show whether he is really so partial to the The-
bans as is alleged."
Both Sides prepare for Battle
With these words ringing in his ears, Cleombrotus felt
driven to join battle. On their side the Theban leaders
calculated that if they did not fight, their provincial cities
would hold aloof from them, and Thebes itself would be be-
sieged ; while if the populace of Thebes failed to get provi-
sions there was a good chance the city itself would turn
against [its own leaders] ; and seeing that many of them
had already tasted the bitterness of exile, they concluded it
were better to die on the battle field than renew the exile's
life. Besides this, they were somewhat encouraged by an
oracle, predicting that "the Lacedaemonians would be de-
feated on the spot where stood the monument of the
maidens," who, as the story goes, being outraged by cer-
tain Lacedaemonians, had slain themselves. This sepulchral
monument the Thebans decked with ornaments before the
battle. Furthermore, tidings were brought from the city
that all the temples had opened of their own accord; and
371 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF LEUCTEA 281
the priestesses asserted that the gods foretold victory.
Cleombrotus held his last council " whether to fight or not "
after the morning meal. In the heat of noon a little wine
goes a long way ; and people said it took a somewhat pro-
vocative effect upon their spirits.
Circumstances unfavorable for the Spartans
Both sides were now arming, and there were unmistakable
signs of approaching battle, when, as the first incident, there
issued from the Boeotian lines a long train bent on departure
they were fu iiishers of the market, a detachment of
baggage bearers and in general such people as had no
hankering to join in the fight. [A band of the Spartan allies
headed them off, and drove them back to the Boeotian camp
. . . ] the result being to make the Boeotian army more
numerous and closely packed than before. The next move
was as a result of the open plain between the two armies,
the Lacedaemonians posted their calvary in front of their
squares of infantry, and the Thebans imitated them. Only
there was this difference, the Theban horse were in a high
state of training and emciency, thanks to their war with the
Orchornenians, and also their war with Thespiae; the Lacedae-
monian cavalry was at its very worst just now. The horses
were reared and kept by the richest citizens ; but whenever
the levy was called out, a trooper appeared who took the
horse with any sort of arms that might be presented to him,
and set off on an expedition at a moment's notice. These
troopers, too, were the least able-bodie.d of the men, just
raw recruits simply set astride their horses, and wanting
in all soldierly ambition. Such was the cavalry of either
antagonist.
The heavy infantry of the Lacedaemonians, it is said,
advanced by sections three abreast, allowing a total depth
to the whole line of not more than twelve. The Thebans
282 PROM ^BGOSPOTAMI TO CELERONEIA
were formed in close order of not less than fifty shields
deep, calculating that victory over the [Spartan] king's di-
vision of his army would involve the easy conquest of the
rest.
The Shock of Battle
Cleombrotus had hardly begun to lead his division against
the foe, when, before in fact the troops with him were aware
of his advance, the cavalry had already come into collision,
and that of the Lacedaemonians was speedily worsted. In
their flight they became involved with their own heavy in-
fantry ; and, to make matters worse, the Theban regiments
were already attacking vigorously. Still strong evidence
exists for supposing that Cleombrotus and his division were,
in the first instance, victorious in the battle, if we consider
the fact that they could never have picked him up and
brought him back alive unless his vanguard had been mas-
ters of the situation for the moment.
When, however, Deinon the polernarch, and Sphodrias, a
member of the king's council, with his son Cleonymus, had
fallen, then it was that the cavalry and the polemarch's ad-
jutants, as they are called, with the rest, under pressure of
the mass against them, began retreating. And the left wing
of the Lacedaemonians, seeing the right borne down in this
way, also swerved. Still, in spite of the numbers slain, and
broken as they were, as soon as they had crossed the trench
which protected their camp in front, they grounded
arms on the spot whence they had rushed to battle. This
camp, it should be borne in mind, did not lie on the level,
but was pitched on a somewhat steep incline.
The Spartans admit Defeat
At this juncture there were some Lacedaemonians, who,
looking upon such a disaster as intolerable, maintained that
they ought to prevent the enemy from erecting a trophy, and
371 B.C.] THE BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 283
try to recover the dead, not under a flag of truce, but by an*
other battle. The polemarchs, however, seeing that nearly
1000 of the total Lacedaemonian troops were slain, and see-
ing, too, that of the 700 regular Spartans who were on the
field some 400 lay dead ; aware likewise of the despondency
which reigned among the allies, and the general disinclina-
tion on their part to fight longer, a frame of mind not far
from positive satisfaction in some cases at what had hap-
pened, under the circumstances, I say, the polemarchs
called a council of the ablest representatives of the shattered
army, and deliberated on what should be done. Finally the
unanimous opinion was to pick up the dead under a flag of
truce, 1 and they sent a herald to treat for terms. The The-
bans after that set up a trophy, and gave back the bodies un-
der a truce.
How the News came to Sparta
After these events a messenger was dispatched to Lacedae-
mon with news of the calamity. He reached his destination
on the last day of the gymnopsediae [midsummer festival]
just when the chorus of grown men had entered the theater.
The ephors heard the mournful tidings not without grief or
pain, as needs they must, I take it ; but for all that they
did not dismiss the chorus, but allowed the contest to run
out its natural course. What they did was to deliver the
names of those who had fallen to their friends and families,
with a word of warning to the women not to make any loud
lamentation, but to bear their sorrow in silence; and the
next day it was a striking spectacle to see those who had
relations among the slain moving to and fro in public with
bright and radiant looks, whilst of those whose friends were
reported to be living, barely a man was seen, and these
i To ask for a burial truce after a battle was a formal confession of
defeat.
284 FROM .EGOSPOTAMI TO CHJJRONEIA
flitted by with lowered heads and scowling brows, as if in
humiliation.
103. How PHILIP OF MACBDON BEGAN HIS REIGN
Justin, " History," book VII, chap. V. Bohn Translation
Philip II of Macedon (reigned 359 to 336 B.C.) took a faction-
rent, semicivilized country of quarrelsome landed nobles and
boorish peasants, and made it into the first military power in the
world. The conquests of Alexander the Great would haye been
impossible without the military power bequeathed him by his al-
most equally great father. At the very outset of his reign Philip
had to confront sore perils in his own family and among the vas-
sals of his decidedly primitive kingdom. Some of these perils are
here explained.
Alexander II [King of Macedon] at the very beginning
of his reign purchased peace from the Illyrians [the bar-
barian folk north and west of Macedon] with a sum of
money, giving his brother Philip as a hostage. Some time
later, also, he made peace with the Thebans by giving the
same hostage, a circumstance which afforded Philip fine
opportunities for improving his extraordinary abilities ; for
being kept as a hostage at Thebes for three years, he re-
ceived the first rudiments of a boy's education at a city
famous for its strict discipline, and in the house of Epami-
nondas, who was eminent as a philosopher as well as a great
general. Not long afterward Alexander perished by a plot
of his mother Eurydice, whom Amyntas [her husband],
when she was once convicted of a conspiracy against him,
had spared for the sake of their children, little imagining
that one day she would be their destroyer. Perdiccas, too, -
A lexander J s brother, was taken off by like treachery. Hor-
rible, indeed, it was that children should have been deprived
of life to gratify the passion of a mother, whom a regard
for those very children had saved from the reward for her
359 B.C.] ACCESSION OF PHILIP 285
crimes. The murder of Perdiccas seemed all the viler in
that not even the prayers of his little son could win him
pity from this mother. Philip, for a long time, acted not as
king, but as guardian to this child ; but when dangerous wars
threatened, and it was too long to wait for the coopera-
tion of a prince who was yet so young, he was forced by the
people to take the government upon himself.
When he took possession of the throne, great hopes were
formed of him by all, both on account of his abilities, which
promised that he would prove a great man, and on account
of certain old oracles touching Macedonia, which foretold
that " when one of the sons of Amyntas should be king, the
country should be extremely flourishing," to fulfill which
expectations the iniquity of his mother had left only him.
At the beginning of his reign, when both the treacherous
murder of his brother, and the multitude of his enemies,
and the poverty of the kingdom exhausted by successive
wars, bore hard upon the immature young king : [he gained
respite from attack by his many foes] some being put off by
offers of peace, and others being bought off. However, he
attacked such of his enemies as seemed easiest to be sub-
dued, in order that by a victory over them he might confirm
the wavering courage of his soldiers, and alter any feelings
of contempt which his foes might feel for him. His first
conflict was with the Athenians, 1 whom he surprised by a
stratagem, but though he might have put them all to the
sword he yet, from dread of a more formidable war, al-
lowed them to depart uninjured, and without [even] a
ransom. Later, leading his army against the Illyrians he
slew several thousand of his enemies and took the famous
city of Larissa. He then fell suddenly upon Thessaly
(when it was fearful of anything but a war), not from a
desire of spoil, but because he wished to add the strength of
i Who sent a fleet to sustain one Manteias, a pretender to Philip's
crown*
286 FROM JBGOSPOTAMI TO dLERONEIA
the Thessalian cavalry to his own troops ; and he thus in
corporated a force of horse and foot in one invincible army.
His undertakings having thus far prospered, he married
Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, king of the Molossians
[of Epirusj ; her cousin-german, Arrybas, then king of that
nation, who had brought up the young princess, and married
her sister Troas, doing all he could to promote the union.
This proceeding, however, proved to be the cause of Arrybas's
downfall, and the beginning of all the evils that afterward
befell him; for while he hoped to strengthen his kingdom
by this connection with Philip, he was deprived of his
crown by that very sovereign, and spent his old age in
exile.
After these proceedings Philip, no longer content to act
on the defensive, boldly attacked even those who had not
injured him. While he was besieging Methone [a Greek
town on the Thermaic Gulf in .Macedonia], an arrow shot
from the walls, as he was passing, struck out his right eye ;
but this wound did not make him less active in the siege,
nor more resentful towards the enemy. In fact, some days
after, he granted them peace when they asked it, on terms
not only not rigorous, but even merciful, to the conquered.
104 How DEMOSTHENES BECAME AN ORATOR
Plutarch, " Life of Demosthenes," chaps. IV-XI
Demosthenes (385 to 322 B.C.) is counted on the whole the
greatest orator who ever lived. A statesman of perfect judg-
ment he was not ; much less was he an able general ; it was, all
considered, a good thing that the Greek system of petty, independ-
ent city-states, with their local feuds and inability to combine
effectively for common ends, passed away in favor of the Macedo-
nian Empire with its great mission to carry the Hellenic
civilization over the broad East. But although not a man of
absolutely spotless personal integrity, there is no doubt that
through his whole life Demosthenes was moved by a love for
365 B.C.] YOUTH OF DEMOSTHENES 287
Athens, and used his matchless powers of eloquence in advocating
what he conceived* to be her true glory. The boyhood and early
training of such an orator becomes naturally an important subject
for study.
Demosthenes, the father of Demosthenes, was a citizen
of good rank and quality, as The&pompus informs us, sur-
named the Sword Maker, because he had a large workhouse,
and kept servants skillful in that art at work. This at
least is certain, that Demosthenes, being as yet but seven
years old, was left by his father in affluent circumstances,
the whole value of his estate being little short of fifteen
talents, and that lie was wronged by his guardians, part
of his fortune being embezzled by them, and the rest neg-
lected; insomuch that even his teachers were defrauded
of their salaries. This was the reason that he did not
obtain the liberal education that he should have had ; be-
sides that on account of weakness and delicate health, his
mother would not let him exert himself, and his teachers
forbore to urge him.
Why Demosthenes took to Oratory
The first occasion of his eager inclination to oratory, they
say, was this. Callistratus, the orator, having to plead in
open court for Oropus, the expectation of the issue of that
cause was very great, as well for the ability of the orator,
who was then at the height of his reputation, as also for the
fame of the action itself. Therefore, Demosthenes, having
heard the tutors and schoolmasters agreeing among them-
selves to be present at this trial, with much importunity
persuades his tutor to take him along with him to the hear-
ing ; who, having some acquaintance with the doorkeepers,
procured a place where the boy might sit unseen, and hear
what was said. Callistratus having got the day, and being
much admired, the boy began to look upon his glory with a
kind of emulation, observing how he was courted on all
288 FROM JSGOSPOTAMI TO CELERONEIA
hands, and attended on his way by the multitude ; but his
wonder was more than all excited by the power of his elo-
quence, which seemed able to subdue and win over anything.
From this time, therefore, bidding farewell to other sorts of
learning and study, he now began to exercise himself, and
to take pains in declaiming, as one that meant to be himself
also an orator. He made use of Isaeus as his guide to the
art of speaking, though Isocrates at that time was giving
lessons ; whether, as some say, because he was an orphan,
and was not able to pay Isocrates his appointed fee of ten
minae, or because he preferred Isseus's speaking, as being
more businesslike and effective in actual use. Hermippus
says that he met with certain memoirs without any author's
name, in which it was written that Demosthenes was a scholar
to Plato, and learnt much of his eloquence from him ; and he
also mentions Ctesibius, as reporting from Callias of Syracuse
and some others, that Demosthenes secretly obtained a knowl-
edge of the systems of Isocrates and Alcidamas, and mastered
them thoroughly.
As soon, therefore, as he was grown up to man's estate, he
began to go to law with his guardians, and to write orations
against them ; who, in the meantime, had recourse to vari-
ous subterfuges and pleas for new trials, and Demosthenes,
though he was thus, as Thucydides says, < taught his business
in dangers/ and by his own exertions was successful in his
suit, was yet unable for all this to recover so much as a
small fraction of his patrimony. He only attained some
degree of confidence in speaking, and some competent ex-
perience in it And having got a taste of the honor and
power which are acquired by pleadings, he now ventured to
come forth, and to undertake public business. And, as it is
said of Laomedon, the Orchomenian, that by advice of his
physician he used to run long distances to keep off some
disease of his spleen, and by that means having, through
labor and exercise, framed the habit of his body, he betook
365 B.C.] YOUTH OF DEMOSTHENES 289
himself to the ' great garland games/ and became one of the
best runners at the long race ; so it happened to Demosthenes,
who, first venturing upon oratory for the recovery of his
own private property, by this acquired ability in speaking,
and at length, in public business, as it were in the great
games, came to have the preeminence of all competitors in
the assembly.
He appears as a Public Orator
When, however, he first addressed himself to the people,
he met with great discouragements, and was derided for his
strange and uncouth style, which was cumbered with long
sentences and tortured with formal arguments to a most
harsh and disagreeable excess. Besides, he had, it seems, a
weakness in his voice, a perplexed and indistinct utterance,
and a shortness of breath, which, by breaking and disjointing
his sentences, much obscured the sense and meaning of what
he spoke. So that in the end, being quite disheartened, he
forsook the assembly ; and as he was walking carelessly and
sauntering about the Piraeus, Eunomus, the Thriasian, then
a very old man, seeing him, upbraided him, saying that his
diction was very much like that of Pericles, and that he was
wanting to himself through cowardice and meanness of
spirit, neither bearing up with courage against popular out-
cry, nor fitting his body for action, but suffering it to lan-
guish through mere sloth and negligence.
[He then devoted himself to the study of oratory, especially that
of physical expression, and caine to realize that good enunciation
and delivery were as important as excellent subject matter.]
Later he built himself a place to study in underground
(which, was still remaining in our time), and hither he would
come constantly every day to form his action, and to exer-
cise his voice ; and here he would continue, oftentimes with-
out intermission, two or three months together, shaving
290 FROM JEGOSPOTAMI TO CILERONEIA
one half of his head, that so for shame he might not go
abroad, though he desired it ever so much.
His Methods of preparing Speeches
Nor -was this all, but he also made his conversation with
people abroad, his common speech, and his business, subser-
vient to his studies, taking from hence occasions and argu-
ments as matter to work upon. For as soon as he was parted
from his company, down he would go at once into his study,
and run over everything in order that had passed, and the
reasons that might be alleged for and against it Any
speeches, also, that he was present at, he would go over
again with himself, and reduce into periods ; and whatever
others spoke to him, or he to them, he would correct, trans-
form, and vary several ways. Hence it was that he was
looked upon as a person of no great natural genius, but one
who owed all the power and ability he had in speaking to
labor and industry. Of the truth of which it was thought
to be no small sign, that he was very rarely heard to speak
upon the occasion, but though he were by name frequently
called upon by the people, as he sat in the assembly, yet he
would not rise unless he had previously considered the sub-
ject, and came prepared for it. So that many of the popu-
lar pleaders used to make it a jest against him ; and Pytheas
once, scoffing at him, said that his arguments smelt of the
lamp. To which Demosthenes gave the sharp answer, "It
is true, indeed, Pytheas, that your lamp and mine are not
conscious of the same things." To others, however, he
would not much deny it, but would admit frankly enough
that he neither entirely wrote his speeches beforehand, nor
yet spoke wholly extempore. And he would affirm that it
was the more truly popular act to use premeditation, such
preparation being a kind of respect to the people; whereas,
to slight, and take no care how what is said is likely to be
365 B.C.] YOUTH OF DEMOSTHENES 291
received by the audience, shows something of an oligarchical
temper, and is the course of one that intends force rathet
than persuasion. . . .
Demetrius, the Phalerian, tells us that he was informed
by Demosthenes himself, now grown old, that the ways he
made use of to remedy his natural bodily infirmities and
defects were such as these : his inarticulate and stammering
pronunciation he overcame and rendered more distinct by
speaking with pebbles in his mouth ; his voice he disciplined
by declaiming and reciting speeches or verses when he was
out of breath, while running or going up steep places ; and
that in his house he had a large looking-glass, before which
he would stand and go through his exercises.
It is told that some one once came to request his assist-
ance as a pleader, and related how he had been assaulted
and beaten. Certainly," said Demosthenes, " nothing of
the kind can have happened to you." Upon which the
other, raising his voice, exclaimed loudly, "What, Demos-
thenes, nothing has been done to me?" "Ah," replied
Demosthenes, "now I hear the voice of one that has been
injured and beaten." Of so great consequence towards the
gaining of belief did he esteem the tone and action of the
speaker. The action which he used himself was wonderfully
pleasing to the common people ; but by well-educated people,
as, for example, by Demetrius the Phalerian, it was looked
upon as mean, humiliating, and unmanly. And Hermippus
says of JEsion, 1 that, being asked his opinion concerning the
ancient orators and those of his own time, he answered that
it was admirable to see with what composure and in what
high style they addressed themselves to the people; but
that the orations of Demosthenes, when they are ready cer-
tainly appear to be superior in point of construction, and
more effective. His written speeches, beyond all question,
are characterized by austere tone and by their severity. In
1 An orator at Athens contemporary to Demosthenes.
292 PROM J1GOSPOTAMI TO CELERONEIA
his extempore retorts and rejoinders, he allowed himself the
use of jest and mockery.
105. How DEMOSTHENES TBIED TO BOUSE HIS FELLOW
ATHENIANS AGAINST PHILIP
Demosthenes, " Second Olynthiac Oration." Grote's Translation (" History
of Greece/' vol. XI, chap. 88)
While Philip of Macedon was in the first stages of his aggressive
power, lie was by no means so formidable that the Athenians could
not have exerted themselves against him successfully. But hi the
disasters of the Peloponnesian War they had lost that tremendous
energy and spirit of sacrifice which had wrought such wonders in the
days of Oimon and Pericles. Demosthenes never ceased to urge
the necessity of an extreme effort to beat back the aggressions of
the king ; but he gained no real response until it was too late.
The passage quoted is from an oration of 349 B.C.
Here you are, Athenians, sitting still [while Philip is on
the point of taking the important city of Olynthus] and
doing nothing. The sluggard cannot even command his
friends to work for him much less the Gods. I do not
wonder that Philip always in the field, doing everything
for himself, never letting slip an opportunity prevails
over you who merely talk, inquire, and vote, without action.
Nay the contrary would be wonderful, if under such cir-
cumstances he had not been the conqueror. But what I do
wonder at is, that you Athenians, who in former days
contended for Panhellenic freedom against the Lacedae-
monians, who, scorning unjust aggrandizement for your-
selves, fought in person and lavished your substance to
protect the rights of other Greeks, that you now shrink
from personal service and payment of money for the defense
of your own possessions. You, who have so often rescued
others, can now sit still after having lost so much of your
own! . . .
This [work of saving Olynthus and checking Philip] must
338 B.C.] BATTLE OF CELERONEIA 293
be done by ourselves, and at once. We must furnish money :
we must serve in person by turns. We must give our gen-
erals means to do their work well, and then exact from them
a severe account afterward which we cannot do, so long
as we ourselves will neither serve nor pay. . . . We must
not only come forward vigorously and heartily, with person
and property, but each man must embrace faithfully his
fair share of patriotic obligation.
106. THE BATTLE OF CH^ERONEIA
Diodorus Siculus, "History," book XVI, chap. 14
In 338 B.C. the liberty of the old Greek city-states was blasted
at Chseroneia in BoBotia by the victory of Philip of Macedon. In
the last crisis Athens and Thebes sank their old feuds and cooper-
ated gallantly; but met disaster primarily because neither city
was able to find even a good second-rate general to pit against
Philip area! genius for war and against his admirably or-
ganized Macedonian army.
This battle implied the passing of the Greek system of city-
states and the substitution of large military monarchies.
In the year Charondas was first archon in Athens, Philip,
king of Macedon, being already in alliance with many of
the Greeks, made it his chief business to subdue the Athe-
nians, and thereby with the more ease control all Hellas.
To this end he presently seized Elateia [a Phocian town
commanding the mountain passes southward], in order to
fall on the Athenians, imagining to overcome them with
ease ; since he conceived they were not at all ready for war,
having so lately made peace with him. Upon the taking of
Elateia, messengers hastened by night to Athens, informing
the Athenians that the place was taken, and Philip was
leading on his men in full force to invade Attica.
The Athenian magistrates in alarm had the trumpeters
sound their warning all night, and the rumor spread with
terrifying effect all through the city. At daybreak the
294 FROM ^GOSPOTAMI TO CBLEBONEIA
people without waiting the usual call of the magistrate
rushed to the assembly place. Thither came the officials
with the messenger ; and when they had announced their
business, fear and silence filled the place, and none of the
customary speakers had heart to say a word. Although the
herald called on everybody "to declare their minds " as
to what was to be done, yet none appeared; the people,
therefore, in great terror cast their eyes on Demosthenes,
who now arose, and bade them to be courageous, and forth-
with to send envoys to Thebes to treat with the Boeotians
to join in the defense of the common liberty 5 for there was
no time (he said) to send an embassy for aid elsewhere,
since Philip would probably invade Attica within two days,
and seeing he must march through Boeotia, the only aid was
to be looked for there.
Thebes makes Alliance with AtJiens
The people approved of his advice, and a decree was voted
that such an embassy should be sent. As the most eloquent
man for the task, Demosthenes was pitched upon, and forth-
with he hastened away [to Thebes. Despite past hostilities
between Athens and Thebes, and the counter-arguments of
Philip's envoys, Demosthenes persuaded Thebes and her
Boeotian cities that their liberty as well as that of Athens
was really at stake, and to join arms with the Athenians. 1 ]
. . . When Philip could not prevail on the Boeotians to
join him, he resolved to fight them both. To this end, after
waiting for reinforcements, he invaded Boeotia with about
thirty thousand foot and two thousand horse.
The Battle
Both armies were now ready to engage ; they were equal
indeed in courage and personal valor, but in numbers and
1 A remarkable piece of diplomacy and eloquence, of which Demosthenes
was justly proud.
338 B.C.] BATTLE OF CELERONEIA 295
military experience a great advantage lay with the king.
For he had fought many battles, gained most of them, and
so learned much about war, but [the best] Athenian generals
were now dead, and Chares the chief of them still remain-
ing differed but little from a common private in all that
pertained to true generalship. About sunrise [at Chaeroneia
in BoBotia] the two armies arrayed themselves for battle.
The king ordered his son Alexander, who had just become
of age, yet already was giving clear signs of his martial
spirit, to lead one wing, though joined to him were some
of the best of his generals. Philip himself, with a picked
corps, led the other wing, and arranged the various brigades
at such posts as the occasion demanded. The Athenians
drew up their army, leaving one part to the Boeotians, and
leading the rest themselves.
At length the hosts engaged, and the battle was fierce
and bloody. It continued long with fearful slaughter, but
victoiy was uncertain, until Alexander, anxious to give his
father proof of his valor, and followed by a courageous
band, was the first to break through the main body of
the enemy, directly opposing him, slaying many ; and bore
down all before him, and his men, pressing on closely, cut
to pieces the lines of the enemy ; and after the ground had
been piled with the dead, put the wing resisting him in
flight. The king, too, at the head of his corps, fought with
no less boldness and fury, that the glory of victory might
not be attributed to his son. He forced the enemy re-
sisting him also to give ground, and at length completely
routed them, and so was the chief instrument of the vic-
tory.
Results of the Battle
Over one thousand Athenians fell, and two thousand were
made prisoners. A great number of the Boeotians, too, per-
ished, and many more were captured by the enemy. . . .
296 PROM ^JGOSPOTAMI TO CE.ERONEIA
. . . [After some boastful conduct by the king, thanks
to the influence of Demades, an Athenian orator who had
been captured], Philip sent ambassadors to Athens and re-
newed the peace with her [on very tolerable terms, leaving
her most of her local liberties]. He also made peace with
the Boeotians, but placed a garrison in Thebes. Having thus
struck terror into the leading Greek states, he made it his
chief effort to be chosen generalissimo of all Greece. It be-
ing noised abroad that he would make war upon the Per-
sians, on behalf of the Greeks, in order to avenge the
impieties committed by them against the Greek gods, he
presently won public favor over to his side throughout
Greece. He was very liberal and courteous, also, to both
private citizens and communities, and proclaimed to the
cities 'that he wished to consult with them as to the com-
mon good.' Whereupon a general Council [of the Greek
cities] was convened at Corinth, where he declared his
design of making war on the Persians, and the reasons he
hoped for success ; and therefore desired the Council to
join him as allies in the war. At length he was created
general of all Greece, with absolute power, and having
made mighty preparations and assigned the contingents
to be sent by each city, he returned to Macedonia [where,
soon after, he was murdered by Pausanius, a private enemy],
107. ALEXANDER'S TRIBUTE TO THE TRANSFORMATION
PHILIP WROUGHT IN MACEDONIA
Arrian, " Alexander," book VII, chap. 9. Bohn Translation
The magnitude of the work done in and for Macedon hy Philip
is admirably summarized by his son Alexander, in a speech de-
livered to a band of mutineers in his army. (Opis in Babylonia,
324 B.C.) Alexander undertook to charge the malcontents with
ingratitude to his dynasty, and recounted his own and his father's
vast services to them.
336 B.C.] GREAT DEEDS OF PHILIP 297
He [Philip] found you vagabonds and destitute, most of
you clad in hides, feeding a few sheep up the mountain
sides for the protection of which you had to fight with
small success against Illyrians, Triballians, and the border
Thracians. Instead of the hides he gave you cloaks to
wear, and from the mountains he led you down into the
plains, and made you capable of fighting the neighboring
barbarians so that you were no longer forced to save your-
selves by trusting more to your inaccessible strongholds
than to your valor. Colonists of cities, too, he made you,
and he adorned [his cities] with useful laws and customs ;
and from being slaves and subjects he made you rulers over
the very barbarians by whom you yourselves, as well as
your property, had previously been liable to be carried off
or ravaged.
Then again he added the bulk of Thrace to Macedonia,
and by seizing the best situated places on the coast, he made
the land prosper by commerce, and made the workings of
the mines safe business. He made you rulers over the
Thessalians of whom you had once been mortally afraid;
and by humbling the folk of the Phocians, he made the road
into Hellas broad for you and easy not narrow and diffi-
cult as before. The Athenians and Thebans, always waiting
to assail Macedonia, he humbled to such a degree . . that
instead of paying- tribute to Athens and being vassals to
Thebes, those states must perforce get security for them-
selves by our aid. He penetrated into Peloponnesus, and,
after regulating its affairs, was publicly declared commander
in chief for all the rest of Hellas in the expedition against
the Persian, adding this glory not more to himself than to
the commonwealth of the Macedonians.
These then were the advantages which you gained from
my father Philip !
CHAPTER IX
ALEXANDER, AMALGAMATOR OF EAST AJTD WEST
To few human beings has it been given to perform so notable a
work as that wrought by Alexander of Macedon, the greater son
of a great father. But for him Greek civilization with all its
noble flower might have remained the mere ornament of a single
race, destined to wither and die with little effect upon distant his-
tory. Alexander gave Greek civilization to the outside world.
Thanks to him and to his mighty successors, the Ptolemies and
Seleucidae, Greek was to become the dominant language, and Greek
modes of thought and art the dominant cultural factors in Egypt,
Syria, Asia Minor, in fact, in all the nearer Orient ; while a line of
kings affecting Greek names and traditions was actually to reign on
the confines of India. The work of Christianity would have been
infinitely hampered if the Greek language had not been ready at
hand, understood by Jew and Gentile alike, for the use of the
Evangelists and of St. Paul. Later the Romans themselves were
to become real exponents of Alexander's tradition, and to aid in the
diffusion of actual Hellenic culture in the East ; just as they dif-
fused the profoundly Hellenized Latin culture in the west of
Europe. The cardinal events in the career of Alexander have
therefore a prime importance in universal history. Most of the ex-
tracts here presented are from Arrian, who is on the whole his best
biographer.
108. THE YOUTH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
Plutarch, "Life of Alexander the Great," chaps. m-Vm
Alexander the Great lived only from 356 to 323 B.O., yet, barring
Julius Caesar, perhaps no other secular personage ever put so great
an impress on history as he. Despite some undesirable qualities,
he seems to have been in the main a gallant cavalier and a high-
minded Mend ; chivalrous, generous, and capable of winning the
298
340 B.C.] YOUTH OF ALEXANDER 299
abiding love of strong men. In battle he would expose himself
with a recklessness seemingly mere folly in a great commander.
He surpassed in all those athletic sports which were the delight
of the Hellenes. Although king of a people that were only semi
Greek, he went into the war with Persia as the enthusiastic cham-
pion of Hellenic culture and light as against barbarism and dark-
ness. The story of his boyhood and education explains much of
what followed in his after career.
Alexander was born the sixth of Hecatombaeon, 1 which
month the Macedonians call Lous, the same day that the
temple of Artemis at Ephesus was burnt.
Just after Philip had taken Potidsea, he received these
three messages at one time : that Parmenio had overthrown
the Illyrians in a great battle, that his race horse had won
the course at the Olympic games, and that his wife had given
birth to Alexander ; with which being naturally well pleased
as an addition to his satisfaction, he was assured by the di-
viners that a son, whose birth was accompanied with three
such successes, could not fail of being invincible.
Alexander's temperance, as to the pleasures of the body,
was apparent in him in his very childhood, as he was with
much difficulty incited to them, and always used them
with great moderation ; though in other things he was ex-
tremely eager and vehement, and in his love of glory, and
the pursuit of it, he, showed a solidity of high spirit and
magnanimity far above his age. For he neither sought nor
valued it upon every occasion, as his father Philip did (who
affected to show his eloquence almost to a degree of pedan-
try, and took care to have the victories of his racing chariots
at the Olympic games engraven on his coin), but when he
was asked by some about him, whether he would run a race
in the Olympic games, as he was very swift-footed, he an-
swered, he would, if he might have kings to run with him.
Indeed, he seems in general to have looked with indifference,
* The Attic month of July.
300 ALEXANDER
if not with dislike, upon the professed athletes. He often
appointed prizes, for which not only tragedians and musi-
cians, pipers and harpers, but rhapsodists also, strove to out-
Tie one another; and delighted in all manner of hunting and
cudgel playing, but never gave any encouragement to contests
either of boxing or of the pancratium. 1
Sis Ambitions and Education in Boyhood
While he was yet very young, he entertained the ambassa-
dors from the king of Persia, in the absence of his father, and
entering much into conversation with them, gained so much
upon them by his affability, and the questions he asked
them, which were far from being childish or trifling (for
he inquired of them the length of the ways, the nature of
the roads into inner Asia, the character of their king, how he
carried himself to his enemies, and what forces he was able
to bring into the field), that they were struck with admira-
tion of him, and looked upon the ability so much famed of
Philip to be nothing in comparison with the forwardness
and high purpose that appeared thus early in his son.
Whenever he heard Philip had taken any town of importance,
or won any signal victory, instead of rejoicing at it altogether,
he would tell his companions that his father would antici-
pate everything, and leave him and them no opportunities
of performing great and illustrious actions. For being more
bent upon action and glory than either upon pleasure or
riches, he esteemed all that he should receive from his father
as a diminution and prevention of his own future achieve-
ments ; and would have chosen rather to succeed to a king-
dom involved in troubles and wars, which would have afforded
him frequent exercise of his courage, and a large field of
honor, than to one already flourishing and settled, where his
inheritance would be an inactive life, and the mere enjoy-
ment of wealth and luxury.
1 A brutal combination of boxing and wrestling*
340 B.C.] YOUTH OF ALEXANDER 301
The care of his education, as it might be presumed, was
committed to a great many attendants, preceptors, and
teachers, over the whole of whom Leonidas, a near kinsman
of Olympias, a man of an austere temper, presided, who did
not indeed himself decline the name of what in reality is a
noble and honorable office, 1 but in general his dignity, and
his near relationship, obtained him from other people the
title of Alexander's foster father and governor. But he
who took upon him the actual place and style of his pedar
gogue, was Lysimachus the Acarnanian, who, though he
had nothing specially to recommend him, but his lucky fancy
of calling himself Phoenix, Alexander Achilles, and Philip
Peleus, was therefore well enough esteemed, and ranked in
the next degree after Leonidas.
How Alexander subdued Bucephalus
Philonicus the Thessalian brought the horse Bucephalus
to Philip, offering to sell him for thirteen talents ; but when
they went into the field to try him, they found him so very
vicious and unmanageable, that he reared up when they en-
deavored to mount him, and would not so much as endure
the voice of any of Philip's attendants. Upon which, as
they were leading him away as wholly useless and untract-
able, Alexander, who stood by, said, "What an excellent
horse do they lose, for want of address and boldness to
manage him ! " Philip at first took no notice of what he
said; but when he heard him repeat the same thing several
times, and saw he was much vexed to see the horse sent
away, "Do you reproach," said he to him, "those who are
older than yourself, as if you knew more, and were better
able to manage him than they?" "I could manage this
horse," replied he, "better than others do." "And if you
i The paidagogus or psedagogus was usually a slave, who took the boy
to and from school.
302 ALEXANDER
do not," said Philip, "what will you forfeit for your rash-
ness ? JJ "I will pay/' answered Alexander, "the whole
price of the horse." At this the whole company fell a
laughing; and as soon as the wager was settled amongst
them, he immediately ran to the horse, and, taking hold of
the bridle, turned him directly towards the sun, having, it
seems, observed that he was disturbed at and afraid of the
motion of his own shadow ; then letting him go forward a
little, still keeping the reins in his hand, and stroking him
gently when he found him begin to grow eager and fiery, he
let fall his upper garment softly, and with one nimble leap
securely mounted him, and when he was seated, by little
and little drew in the bridle, and curbed him without either
striking or spurring him. Presently, when he found him
f ree from all rebelliousness, and only impatient for the course,
he let him go at full speed, inciting him now. with a com-
manding voice, and urging him also with his heel. Philip
and his friends looked on at first in silence and anxiety
for the result, till, seeing him turn at the end of his career,
and come back rejoicing and triumphing for what he had
performed, they all burst out into acclamations of applause ;
and his father, shedding tears, it is said, for joy, kissed him
as he came down from his horse, and in his transport said,
" my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of
thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee."
Alexander is trained by Aristotle
After this, considering him to be of a temper easy to be
led to his duty by reason, but by no means to be compelled,
he always endeavored to persuade rather than to command or
force him to anything; and now looking upon the instruction
and tuition of his youth to be of greater difficulty and im-
portance than to be wholly trusted to the ordinary masters
in music and poetry, and the common school subjects, and
to require, as Sophocles says,
340 B.C.] YOUTH OF ALEXANDER 303
"The bridxe and the rudder too,"
he sent for Aristotle, the most learned and most celebrated
philosopher of his time, and rewarded him with a munifi-
cence proportionable to and becoming the care he took to
instruct his son. For he repeopled his native city Stagira,
which he had caused to be demolished a little before, and
restored all the citizens who were in exile or slavery, to
their habitations. As a place for the pursuit of their studies
and exercises, he assigned the temple of the Nymphs, near
Mieza, where, to this very day, they show you Aristotle's stone
seats, and the shady walks which he was wont to frequent.
It would appear that Alexander received from him not
only his doctrines of Morals, and of Politics, but also some-
thing of those more abstruse and profound theories which
these philosophers, by the very names they gave them, pro-
fessed to reserve for oral communication to the initiated,
and did not allow many to become acquainted with. For
when he was in Asia, and heard Aristotle had published
come treatises of that kind, he wrote to him, using very
plain language to him in behalf of philosophy, the follow-
ing letter: "Alexander to Aristotle greeting. You have
not done well to publish your books of oral doctrine ; for
what is there now that we excel others in, if those things
which we have been particularly instructed in be laid open
to all ? For my part, I assure you, I had rather excel others
in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of
my power and dominion. Farewell." And Aristotle, sooth-
ing this passion for preeminence, speaks, in his excuse for
himself, of these doctrines, as in fact both published and not
published ; as indeed, to say the truth, his books on meta-
physics are written in a style which makes them useless for
ordinary teaching, and instructive only, in the way of memo-
randa, for those who have been already conversant in that
sort of learning. He was naturally a groat lover of all
kinds of learning and reading ; and Onesicritus informs us
304 . ALEXANDER
that he constantly laid Homer's " Iliad/' according to the
copy corrected by Aristotle, called the casket copy, with his
dagger under his pillow, declaring that he esteemed it a
perfect portable treasure of all military virtue and knowl-
edge. When he was in the upper Asia, being destitute of
other books, he ordered Harpalus to send him some ; who
furnished him with Philistus's " History," a great many of
the plays of Euripides, Sophocles, and JEschylus, and some
dithyrambic odes, composed by Telestes and Philoxenus.
109, How ALEXANDER DREW UP HIS PHALANX
Aman, "Alexander," book I, chap. 6. Bohn Translation
Alexander's most famous military arm was his phalanx, the
solid array of Macedonian footmen armed with sarissce, spears
about 18 feet long. Such a spear hedge was practically impene-
trable. But Alexander did not simply use the phalanx in line of
battle on level ground. He had a number of formations which he
could employ according to circumstances, as here illustrated. Again,
he seldom depended in battle upon the phalanx alone; rather it was
used to hold the enemy in check, while his splendid "Companion "
cavalry crushed the foe by flank and rear charges.
[Alexander being on the point of engaging the Taulantians,
a people of Illyria to the north of Macedonia], drew up his
army in such a way that the depth of the phalanx was 120
men, and stationing 200 cavalry on each wing he ordered
them to keep silence, and receive the word of command
quickly. Accordingly he gave the signal to the heavy-armed
infantry in the first place to hold their spears erect, and
then to couch them at the concerted sign ; at one time to
incline their spears to the right, closely locked together
at another towards the left. He then set the phalanx itself
into quick motion forward, and marched it toward the wings
[of the whole line of battle], now to the right, and now to
the left. After thus arranging and rearranging his lines
many times very rapidly, he at last formed his phalanx into
333 B.C.] ALEXANDER ANSWERS DARIUS 305
a sort of wedge, and led it towards the left against the
enemy, who had long been in a state of amazement at seeing
both the order and the rapidity of his evolutions. Conse-
quently they did not sustain Alexander's attack, but quitted
the first ridges of the mountain. Upon this, Alexander
ordered the Macedonians to raise the battle cry, and to make
a clatter with their spears upon their shields, and the
Taulantians being still more alarmed at the noise led
their army back to their city at full speed.
110. ALEXANDER'S ANSWER TO THE PETITION OP DARIUS
FOB PEACE
Arrian, " Alexander/' book H, chap. 14. Bonn Translation
Very few of the laws and proclamations of the great Macedonian
have come down to us in original form ; consequently this letter,
which is really what Alexander intended to be a statement of his
motives in waging the war, has no slight importance. Of course, it
gives what Alexander wished the Asiatics to believe were the facts,
rather than the facts as ascertained by impartial history. The
style of the letter seems to be Alexander's own, and shows how
he could assume the tone of an Eastern despot.
[After the battle of Issus (333 B.O.), Darius III of Persia sent
envoys to Alexander, entreating the restoration of his mother, wife,
and children, and desiring friendship and alliance ; in reply Alex-
ander sent the following uncompromising letter.]
Your ancestors came into Macedonia and the rest of
Greece and .treated us ill, though not wronged by us. I,
who have been appointed Captain General of the Hellenes,
desiring to take vengeance on the Persians, crossed over into
Asia, after you had begun the fighting. For you sent aid to
the Perinthians, 1 who were dealing unjustly with my father;
and Ochus [your predecessor] sent forces into Thrace, which
was under our rule. My father was killed by conspirators
whom you instigated, as you yourself boasted to all in your
1 Whohad been besieged -by Fhilip.
306 ALEXANDER
letters, 1 and, after seizing the throne yourself contrary to
Persian law, and ruling your subjects unjustly, you sent un-
friendly letters abeut me to the Greeks, urging them to wage
war with me. You have also dispatched money to the
Lacedaemonians, and certain other Greeks ; but none of the
states received it, save only the Lacedaemonians. As your
agents corrupted my friends and were striving to dissolve the
league which I had f craned against the Greeks, I took the field
against you, because you were the party who began the strife.
Since now I have vanquished your generals and satraps
in the former battle [of the Granicus], and now you yourself
and your forces in like manner, I am by the gift of the
gods in possession of your land. As many of the men
who fought in your army as were not slain in the battle, but
fled to me for refuge, I am protecting. They are with me
not perforce, but serve me as volunteers. Come to me, there-
fore, for I am the lord of all Asia. If you are fearful of
severity from me should you come, send some friends to ob-
tain safe pledges from me. Come to me, then, and ask for
your mother, wife, children, and aught else that you desire.
For whatsoever you ask, you shall receive. Nothing shall
be denied you.
For the future, however, whenever you communicate,
send to me as to " The King of Asia " ; and address not
to me your wishes as to an equal. If you need anything,
address me as th3 man who is lord of all your lands. If
you do otherwise, I will consider how to reward you as a
malefactor. If you question my right to lordship, stay and
fight another battle for it. But do not run away ; for where-
ever you may be, thither will I march to attack you. 2
1 Probably Darius had no part in the death of Philip, though he perhaps
claimed it to gain favor with the Anti-Macedonian party in Greece.
2 NOTE TO THIS LETTER. This letter contains several errors in the
Greek, proving that Alexander wrote it himcelf, for he certainly had
secretaries whose style would have been models of Attic elegance after the
manner of the great stylist, Isocrates.
332 B.C.] FOUNDATION OF ALEXANDRIA 307
111. THE FOUNDING OP ALEXANDRIA BY ALEXANDER THE
GREAT
Anian, "Alexander/' book HI, chap. 1. Bonn Translation
Alexandria in Egypt was founded by the Conqueror in 332
B.C., as a Greek city, to be the link betwixt Hellas and Egypt,
replacing the older and inconveniently located Naucratis. Noth-
ing better illustrates the prescience of Alexander than the selection
of this site, which is the best point for a great commercial metrop-
olis along the whole Egyptian coast. The city soon grew to a
size far surpassing the most optimistic expectations. Alexander
was a mighty city founder. At least nine other " Alexandria^ "
lay scattered over the Graeco-Oriental world, whereof four were of
considerable importance.
[When Alexander had entered Egypt and received the
submission of the population], from Memphis he sailed
down the river towards the sea, . . . coming to Canopus
he . . , disembarked where is now situated the city of Al-
exandria, which takes its name from him. The position
seemed to him a very fine spot on which to found a city,
and lie thought it would become a prosperous one. There-
fore he was seized by an ardent desire to undertake the en-
terprise, and lie marked out the boundaries of the city
himself, pointing out the place where the market place
was to be located; where the temples were to be built,
stating how many there were to be, and to what Grecian
gods they were to be dedicated, and specially marking a
spot for a temple to the Egyptian Isis. He also pointed
out where the wall was to be carried out. The soothsayers
[pondering upon certain lucky omens] told Alexander that
the city would become prosperous in every respect, but es-
pecially in regard to the fruits of the earth.
308 . ALEXANDER
112. DARITTS'S ARMY AT ARBELA
Arrian, "Alexander/ 9 book III, chap. 8. Bohn Translation
Despite the experience of one hundred and fifty years of warfare
with the Greeks, the Persians had learned little about field tactics
and the proper composition of armies. On the eve of the battle of
Arbela (more properly " The Plains of Gaugamela ") * in October
331 B.O., Darius III had an army of almost the same type as the
lumbering host of Xerxes ; and in the actual battle he did not use
it more skillfully.
The Indians who were neighbors to the Baetrians, like-
wise the Bactrians themselves and the Sogdianians, had come
to the aid of Darius, all under the lead of Bessus, satrap of
the Bactrian lands. They were followed by the Sacians, a
Scythian tribe belonging to the Scythians who dwell in
Asia. 2 These were not subject to Bessus, but were in alli-
ance with Darius. . . .
[There were besides these Arachotians, and mountaineer In-
dians, Areians, Parthians, Hyrcanians, Tapurians, Medes, Susiani-
ans, Carians, Babylonians, Armenians, and Syrians, and others
in short, men from practically every folk of the nearer and central
Orient.]
The whole army of Darius was said to contain 40,000
cavalry, 1,000,000 infantry, and 200 scythe-bearing chariots.
There were only a few elephants, some 15, belonging to the
Indians from the nearer side of the Indus. With these
forces Darius had encamped at Gaugamela, near the river
Bumodus, about 600 stadia [some 67 miles] distant from
the city of Arbela, in a district everywhere level ; for what-
ever ground thereabouts was unlevel and unfit for the evo-
lutions of cavalry had been leveled by the Persians, and
i The Plains of Gaugamela where the battle occurred were some 60 miles
west of Arbela ; but Darius had his headquarters in the latter city, just be-
fore the combat.
a As opposed to the European Scythians north of the Danube.
331 B.C.] ALEXANDER BEFORE ARBELA 309
made fit for the easy rolling of chariots and for the gallop-
ing of horses. For there were some who persuaded Darius
that he had forsooth got the worst of it in the [previous]
battle at Issus, from the narrowness of the battle field; and
this he was easily induced to believe.
113. ALEXANDER BEFORE THE BATTLE OF ARBELA
Arrian, "Alexander," book III, chaps. 9 and 10. Bohn Translation
Alexander realized that his victory of Issus had decided nothing.
To render himself the undisputed Emperor of Asia, it was necessary
to rout the " Great King " in fair battle, with all Darius's hordes-
men about him. Such a victory would strike lasting terror into
the Orientals. Alexander therefore prepared for this decisive battle
with a caution which seldom characterized his movements. The
results were the direct fruit of his carefully exercised skill.
When Alexander had received full information from the
Persian scouts that had been captured [as to Darius's army]
he remained four days in the place where he had received
the news and gave his army rest after the march. . . . [Then
he advanced cautiously] : and when he was only SO stadia
[about 3^ miles] from the enemy, and his army was already
marching down from a hill . . . catching sight of the Bar-
barians he caused his phalanx there to halt. Calling a coun-
cil of the " Companions," generals, cavalry officers, and leaders
of the Greek allies, and mercenaries, he deliberated with them,
whether he should lead the phalanx without delay, as most
of them urged him to do, or whether, as Parmenio 1 thought
preferable, to encamp there for the present, to reconnoiter
all the ground, in order to see if there was anything to ex-
cite suspicion, or impede their progress, or if there were
ditches or stakes planted out of sight, as well as to get a
clearer idea of the enemies' tactical arrangements. Parme-
nio's opinion prevailed, so they encamped there, drawn up
in battle order [and Alexander with a small escort recon-
* An experienced and elderly general.
310 ALEXANDER
noitered, then returned and urged his captains to valor, and
bade them each rouse their own men to great exertions").
He assured them that in this battle the stake was not as
before either Lower Syria, or Phoenicia, or Egypt, but it was
the whole of Asia. 3?or he asserted that " this battle would
decide who were to be the riders of the continent." It was not
needful for him to stir them up by many words this en-
couragement they had by nature ; but they should see that
each man took care, so far as in him lay, to preserve disci-
pline in the critical moment of action, and to keep perfect
silence when it was expedient to advance in silence. On
the other hand, they should see that each man uttered a
mighty shout, when it was advantageous to shout ; and to
raise as terrible a battle cry as possible, when a suitable op-
portunity came to raise the battle cry. He told them to
take pains to obey his orders quickly, and to transmit orders
they had received to the ranks with all rapidity ; each man
remejnbering that both as an individual and in the aggre-
gate he was increasing the general danger if he was slack
in his duty, and that he was helping to victory if he strove
to the uttermost.
Alexander then ordered his soldiers to take dinner and to
rest themselves. It is said that Parmenio came to him in
his tent and urged him to make a night attack upon the Per-
sians, saying that thus he would strike them unprepared and
in a state of confusion, and at the same time more liable to
a panic in the dark. But [Alexander replied . . . ] that,
" It would be mean to steal a victory ; and he ought to con-
quer in open day and without artifice."
[His reasons for this answer were probably not vainglory, but
because if any accident befell and the Macedonians were worsted,
they, as strangers in the country, would probably be caught in the
night and surrounded by their foes.] 1
1 Besides, the moral effect of a victory over Darius if gained in fair fight
would be vastly greater.
331 B.C.] BATTLE OF ARBBLA 311
114. THE BATTLE or ABBELA OB GAUGAMELA
Arrian, " Alexander," book III, chaps. 11-14. Bohn Translation
Alexander won this decisive battle by using his phalanx with
admirable effect in restraining the charges of the enemy, while with
his dashing cavalry he penetrated the Barbarian lines. He par-
ticularly directed his charge against the position of Darius himself,
well knowing after an experience at the earlier battle of Issus
that if once their king were put to flight, the Orientals would be-
come demoralized.
[Darius drew up his men, stationing himself with his picked
Persians in the center, on either side a host of Greek mercenaries
and Indian auxiliaries. Strengthening the center were many Baby-
lonians. On the left wing besides the masses of Asiatic hordes-
men were 100 scythe-bearing chariots ; on the right the Medes,
Sacse, and many other brave tribal contingents. The Barbarian
host far outflanked the inferior numbers of Alexander.
Alexander posted on his left the confederate Greeks and the
Thessalian cavalry under Parmenio, in the center his phalanx,
to the right his hypaspists (semi-light infantry) and his " Compan-
ion" Macedonian cavalry, his best corps. Covering the flanks to
guard against a rear attack were some special divisions of cavalry,
archers, and javelin men.]
How the Battle Opened
When the armies drew near each other, Darius * and the
men especially around Mm were observed opposite Alex-
ander himself and his royal squadron of cavalry. Alexan-
der led his own army more towards the right, and the
Persians marched parallel along with him, far outflanking
him upon their left. Then the Scythian cavalry rode along
the line and came into conflict with the front men of
Alexander's army ; nevertheless he still continued to march
towards the right, and almost entirely got beyond the
ground that had been cleared and leveled by the Persians.
1 Doubtless in a very splendid and conspicuous chariot.
312 ALEXANDER
Then Darius, fearing that his chariots would become useless
if the Macedonians advanced upon the uneven ground, or-
dered the front ranks of his left wing to ride round the
right wing of the Macedonians, where Alexander was com-
manding, to prevent him from marching his wing any fur-
ther.
[This led to countermoves by Alexander and precipitated
a general cavalry engagement; the Greeks suffered severely,
but sustained the assaults, and] assailing the enemy violently
squadron by squadron, succeeded in pushing them out of
rank. Meanwhile the Barbarians launched the scy thed-char-
iots against Alexander himself, to throw his phalanx into
confusion ; but in this they were grievously deceived. For
as soon as they approached the [Macedonian] javelin men,
who had been posted in front of the ' Companion J cavalry,
hurled their darts at some of the horses ; others they seized
by the reins and pulled the drivers off, and standing round
the horses killed them. Yet some got right through the
ranks ; for the men stood apart, and opened their ranks, as
they had been taught, wherever the chariots attacked.
Thus commonly the chariots went through safely, and their
drivers were unhurt, but the [rear guard] later overpowered
them.
Alexander charges Himself
As soon as Darius set his whole battle line in motion,
Alexander ordered Aretes to attack those who were riding
clear around his right wing ; and up to that time he was
himself leading his men in column. But when the Per-
sians made a break in the front line of their army, when
their cavalry charged to aid those executing the flanking
movement, Alexander wheeled towards the gap, and form-
ing a wedge as it were of the ' Companion ' cavalry and of the
part of the phalanx which was posted here, he led them
with a quick charge, and a loud battle cry straight twoards
331 B.C.] BATTLE OF ARBBLA 313
Darius. Then came a short hand-to-hand tn&e'e j but when
the Macedonian horse, led by Alexander himself, pressed
on vigorously, thrusting themselves against the Persians
and striking their faces with their spears, and -when the
Macedonian phalanx in dense array, bristling with long
pikes, had joined in the attack, general terror smote Darius,
whose courage already had been shaken ; so that he was the
first to turn and flee. Likewise the Persians who were try-
ing to outflank, panic-stricken at the vigorous attack of
Aretes, took to flight 5 and in this quarter the Macedonians
chased after and slaughtered the fugitives.
The Final Rout of the Asiatics
[Elsewhere on the battle field, however, the Persians
pressed boldly; broke through the Macedonian line and
began to plunder Alexander's camp ; while others attacked
Parmenio's division on the flank, putting it in great straits.
At the news of Parrnenio's peril] Alexander turned back
from the pursuit, and wheeling round with the < Companion 9
cavalry 1 led them at full speed against the Barbarian's right
wing. Here ensued the most obstinately contested cavalry
fight in the whole battle. For drawn up by squadrons, the
foreigners wheeled round in deep column, and falling on
Alexander's men face to face, no longer relied on javelin
casting, or skillful deploying of horses, as is usual in cav-
alry battles, but every man for himself strove desperately
to break through what stood in his way, as his only means
of safety. Here about 60 of Alexander's ' Companions' fell
[and several leaders] were wounded. But these foes, too,
Alexander overcame ; and such as could force their way
through his ranks fled with all their might.
Meantime [ere Alexander could come to their help] the
lit shows a wonderful state of discipline that the " Companion " horse
Just after winning one battle could be diverted to another.
314 ALEXANDER
Thessalian cavalry [under Parmenio] in a splendid struggh
were not falling short of Alexander's own success in the
combat. For the Barbarians on the right wing were already
beginning to fly when he caine on the scene of [this] con-
flict; so that again he wheeled, and started in pursuit of
Darius once more, keeping up the chase while daylight
lasted. [After resting his men till midnight, Alexander
pursued again all next day, but did not take the king, for]
Darius went on fleeing without any rest. However, the
money and all his other wealth were captured, likewise his
chariot; and his spear and bow were also taken, as they
had been after Issus.
Of Alexander's men about 100 were killed and more than
1000 of his horses ; either from wounds or exhausted in the
pursuit. ... Of the Barbarians there are said to have been
300,000 slain, and far more taken prisoners than were killed. 1
115. How THE NEWS OF ALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS
AFFECTED THE GREEKS
j&sehines's Oration, " Against Ctesiphon "
The victories of Alexander over Darius, reported successively in
Greece, struck both his Mends and foes with unparalleled aston-
ishment. This is voiced (330 B.O.) in the speech by JSschines,
Demosthenes's opponent, which called forth the latter's famous
" Oration on the Crown." The Great King of Persia had passed
for centuries as almost a god in power and prosperity.
Of all the strange and unexpected things possible, what
is there that has not befallen in our day ? Our lives have
transcended the limits of humanity ; we are born to serve
as a theme for tales incredible to men after us. For be-
hold, is not the king of Persia himself he who digged
!The statement by Alexander's other biographer, Curtius, 40,000 Per-
sians and about 390 Macedonians slain, is far more within bounds oi
328 B.C.] MURDER OF CLITUS 315
through Athos and bridged the Hellespont he who de-
manded earth and water of the Hellenes, who dared to
declare himself in his dispatches " Lord of all Peoples from
the Sunrise to the Sunset," is not he now struggling, not
for Ms lordship over the nations, but actually for his own
personal safety ?
116. THE MURDER OF CLITXJS BY ALEXANDER
Arrian, " Alexander/' book IV, chap. 8. Bohn Translation
As Alexander passed from victory to victory, and seemed more
than ever the favorite of the gods, it was only human that his
head should become turned, especially as he was now sur-
rounded by servile Oriental flatterers. As a result he began to
exhibit an irresponsible spirit, and to give way to fits of passion
that sometimes culminated in real crimes. The most famous of
these crimes was the murder of Olitus, a .general and friend who
had saved his life at the battle of the G-ranicus (334 B.C.). The
crime occurred at the Macedonian camp in the 1 eart of Asia (Sog-
diana) in 328 B.C.
The Macedonians kept a feast day to Dionysus, and on
that day Alexander was wont to offer nim sacrifice each
year. . . . Now it befell that the drinking party on this oc-
casion had already gone on too long for Alexander had made
innovations even in regard to drinking, imitating overmuch
the custom of the Barbarians and in the midst of the
carouse a discussion had arisen about the twin gods [Castor
and Polydeuces] . . . some, of thpse present to flatter Alex-
ander, asserting that " they were in no wise worthy to com-
pare with him and his exploits ! " Such men have always
destroyed and will not cease to ruin the interests of those
who happen to be reigning. In their carousal they did not
even refrain from comparing him to Heracles ; saying that
" envy stood in the way of the living getting the honors
due them from their associates."
316 ALEXANDER
It was generally known that Clitus [a most trusted and
important officer] had long been vexed at Alexander for the
change in his style of living in excessive imitation of foreign
customs, and at those who nattered him with their speech.
At that time, too, heing heated with wine, he would not
suffer them either to insult the deity, or, by deprecating the
deeds of ancient heroes, confer on Alexander this gratifica-
tion which deserved no thanks. He affirmed that Alex-
ander's deeds were neither in fact at all so great or marvel-
ous as the others represented; nor had he wrought them
himself, but for the most part they were the deeds of the
Macedonians. [This speech annoyed Alexander ; and some
present retorted by declaring Philip's auctions had been
nothing marvelous . . .] to which Clitus, unable to contain
himself, replied by putting Philip's deeds in the first rank,
and deprecating Alexander and his deeds. Clitus was now
quite drunken . . . and even reviled the king, because he
had saved his life in the cavalry mle with the Persians at
the Granicus. Then indeed, arrogantly stretching out his
right hand, he asserted, "This hand, Alexander, saved
Alexander now could no longer endure his drunken insolence,
but leaped up against him in fury ; but his boon companions
restrained him. As Clitus did not stop his insults, Alexander
shouted out for his "shield bearers "* to attend him; but no
one obeyed him [in view of his condition. . . . ] Then his com-
panions could restrain him no longer. According to some ac-
counts he sprang up and snatched a javelin from one of his
body-guards; according to others a long pike from one of his
other guards with which he struck Clitus and killed him. . . .
[According to one account] Clitus was led away by Ptolemy,
son of Lagus, through the gateway beyond the wall and
ditch of the citadel where the quarrel occurred. Then Clitus,
who could not control himself, went back again; and falling
1 His personal guards. .......
324 B.C.] MINGLING OF EAST AND WEST 317
in with Alexander, who was calling out for Clitus I " ex-
claimed, " Alexander, here I am Clitus ! " Thereupon he
was struck with a long pike and killed.
[The remorse of Alexander for this deed was terrible;
some accounts say] he propped the pike against the wall
with the intent of falling upon, it himself, thinking it was
not proper for him to live, who had killed his friend, while
mastered by wine. . . . He ceased not calling himself " the
murderer of his friend," and for three days rigidly abstained
from food and drink, and paid no attention to his personal
appearance.
[His flatterers presently comforted him, however, urging that
Clitus had been doomed by divine justice, and had brought on his
own fate and Alexander recovered his spirits and resumed the
leadership of the army.]
117. How ALEXANDER TRIED TO COMMINGLE EAST AND
WEST
Arrian " Alexander " book VH, chap. 4. Bohn Translation
Alexander had gone forth as the Captain General of Hellas to
avenge the invasion of Xerxes. As victory came to him beyond
expectation, his views gradually changed. He wished to be in a
manner " Emperor " of the whole world, and to fuse East and
West into one great civilized society. To this end he strove to break
down the social barriers betwixt Hellene and Barbarian. The
task would have proved a supremely difficult one even for an
Alexander, and his sudden death practically put an end to the
highly interesting experiment.
In Susa [after his return from the far East] he celebrated
both his own wedding and those of his companions. He
himself married Barsine, the eldest daughter of Darius, and
according to [his biographer] Aristobulus, besides her yet
another Parysatis, the youngest daughter of Darius. He
had already married Roxana, daughter of Oxyartes the
318 ALEXANDER
Bactrian. 1 [To each of his leading generals he gave a nobh
Asiatic lady to wife.] Likewise to the rest of his ' Compan-
ions ' he gave the choicest daughters of the Persians and
Medes to the number of 80. The weddings were celebrated
after the Persian manner, seats being placed in a row for the
bridegrooms; and after the banquet the brides came in and
seated themselves each one near her own husband. The
bridegrooms took them by the right hand and kissed them;
the king being the first to begin, for the weddings were all
conducted in the same way.
This appeared the most popular thing which Alexander
ever did; and it proved his affection for his < Companions.'
Each man took his own bride and led her away ; and on all
without exception Alexander bestowed dowries. He also
ordered that the names of all the other Macedonians who
had married Asiatic women should be registered. They
were over 10,000 in number ; and to these Alexander made
presents on account of their weddings.
How Alexander rewarded his Veterans
He thought it a good opportunity now to discharge the
debts of all his soldiers ; to that end he ordered that a reg-
ister should be made of how much each man owed in order
that they might get the money. At first only a few regis-
tered [many fearing this was a device to catch spendthrifts,
whereupon Alexander complained they were wrong in dis-
trusting him]. Accordingly he had tables placed in camp
with money upon them ; and he appointed paymasters. He
ordered the debts of all who showed a money bond to be
discharged without the debtors' names being registered.
Thus the men believed Alexander was sincere ; and the fact
they were not known was even greater pleasure than the
mere getting out of debt. This presentation to the army is
said to have amounted to 20,000 talents [over $20,000,000].
1 Alexander was thus setting up a harem like an Oriental king.
324 B.C.] MINGLING OF EAST AND WEST 319
He also gave special presents to particular individuals, ac-
cording as each man was held in honor for his conspicuous
merit or valor in crises of danger. [Thus many received
golden chaplets of honor.]
The Enlisting of Asiatics in the Army
The viceroys from the newly built cities and the rest of
the conquered lands came [now] to him, bringing with them
the youths just growing into manhood to the number of
30,000 all of the same age, whom Alexander called
Epigoni [i.e. Successors], They had been accoutered with
the Macedonian arms, and trained in the Macedonian mili-
tary system. It is said their coming exasperated the Mace-
donians, who thought that Alexander was contriving by
every means in his power to free himself from future need
of their services. For the same reason, also, the sight of his
Median dress was no small cause of dissatisfaction to them ;
and the weddings, celebrated in the Persian fashion, were
displeasing to most of them, even some of those who were
married, although they had been greatly honored by being
put on a level with the ling, in the marriage ceremony.
They were disgusted that [many Asiatic] horsemen had
been distributed among the squadrons of the ' Companion >
cavalry ; as many of them at least as seemed to excel in
reputation, stature, or any other good quality, and that a
fifth cavalry division was added to these troops, not composed
wholly of Barbarians ; but the whole body of cavalry was
increased in number, and men were picked from the Barba-
rians and put into it. ... [Barbarian footmen were also en-
rolled] and Macedonian spears were given them in place of
their native javelins with thongs attached. All this of-
fended the Macedonians, who thought that Alexander was
becoming Asiatic in his ideas, and holding the Macedonians
as well as their customs in contempt
320 ALEXANDER
[As a result of this discontent there was presently a formidable
mutiny among the Macedonians which Alexander suppressed with
some difficulty.]
118. ADRIAN'S SKETCH OF THE CHARACTBR OF ALEXANDER
Arrian, " Alexander/' book VH, chap. 28. Bohn Translation
Arrian wrote at about 140 A.D. He drew his account of
Alexander from reliable sources, and in this opinion of the great
Macedonian's character we may fairly believe we have the estimate
which men of antiquity passed upon him, both the view of
his contemporaries and of the centuries following.
Alexander lived 32 years and 8 months. He had reigned
[when he died] 12 years and 8 months. He was very
handsome in person, and much devoted to exertion, very
active in mind, heroic in courage, exceeding fond of incur-
ring danger, 1 and strictly observant of his duty to the gods.
In regard to the pleasures of his body, he had perfect
self-control ; and of those of the mind, praise was the only
one of which he was insatiate. He was notably clever
in realizing the thing to be done, while others were still
groping after it; and very successful in conjecturing from
observed facts what was likely to happen. In marshaling,
arming, and ruling an army he was exceeding skillful,
and noteworthy for rousing the courage of his soldiers,
filling them with hopes of success, and dispelling their
fear in the midst of danger by his own freedom from fear.
Therefore even what he had to do in uncertainty of the
result, he did with the uttermost boldness.
Again he was extremely clever in getting the start of
his enemies, and snatching from them their advantages
by secretly forestalling them, before any one even feared
what was going to happen. He likewise was most steadfast
in holding to his agreements and settlements, as well as
2 He exposed himself recklessly in battle.
323 B.C.] CHARACTER OF ALEXANDER 321
prudent against being entrapped by deceivers. Finally,
he was very sparing in the expenditure of money, for the
gratification of his own pleasures 5 but he was exceeding
bountiful in spending it for the weal of his comrades.
That Alexander should have committed errors in conduct
from impetuosity or wrath, and that he should have been
induced to behave like the [despotic] Persian monarchs to
an improper degree, I do not think remarkable con-
sidering his youth and his unbroken career of good fortune ;
but I am certain that Alexander was the only one of the
ancient kings, who from nobility of character repented of his
errors. I do not think that even his tracing his origin to a
god [Zejis Ammon] was a great error on Alexander's part, if
it was not perhaps merely a device to induce his subjects
to show him reverence. His adoption of the Persian mode
of dress also seems to me to have been a political device
as regards the Barbarians, that the king need not appear
utterly alien to them ; and touching the Macedonians show
that he had a refuge from their rashness and temper.
[It is said that Alexander] used to have long drinking
parties ; but this was not to enjoy the wine, as he was not
a mighty drinker, but to show his sociability and friendly
feeling to his " Companions."
[And after a warm eulogy of Alexander, notwithstanding
a recognition of his shortcomings, Arrian asserts] : for my
own part, I think there was at that time no race of men,
no city, not one individual even, to whom his name and
fame had not penetrated. Therefore it seems to me that a
hero so totally unlike any other human being could not have been
born save by the agency of the God. This is attested by the
honor paid him by men up to the present time [about 140
A.D.], and by the remembrance which is still held of him
as more than human, 1
1 Alexander was adored as a god (Theos) almost from the moment ol
his death. ,
CHAPTER X
THE HELLENISTIC AGE
The period following the death of Alexander and extending down
to the period of the Roman Conquest is of great importance in the
history of the world. The work of the Ptolemies in Hellenizing
Egypt, and of the Seleucidse in making Syria almost into a Grecian
land has a noteworthy and permanent significance. Unfortu-
nately, however, our literary sources are of a kind that do not adapt
themselves readily to brief quotation. In this Hellenistic era, it
should be remembered, we are in an age when the city-states of old
Hellas (although by no means extinct or utterly enslaved) are
completely overshadowed by the " Kings " of the various Macedo-
nian dynasties, which had established themselves in the nearer Ori-
ent. About all that can be done in this chapter is to give some
impression of the magnificent capitals of these monarchs, the splen-
dor of their courts, and their modes of warfare. Many important
topics, such as e.g. the Achssan League, the development of learning
at Alexandria, and the diffusion of the Greek language and modes
of thought through Asia, are perforce omitted.
119. How ELEPHANTS FOUGHT IN HELLENISTIC ARMIES
Polybius, " History," book V, chaps. 84-86. Shuckburgh's Translation
During the age of " Hellendom * the main reliance in battle was
on the phalanx, trained in the Macedonian fashion, but often less
skillfully handled than Alexander had handled his infantry. A new
and very picturesque military factor was the elephants, the use
whereof had been learned from the Hindoos. When properly under
control, a war elephant was almost irresistible, the trouble came,
of course, when he grew unmanageable in the roar of battle and
charged recklessly back into his own lines.
[In a battle fought at Eaphia in Palestine in 217 B.C. between
217 B.C.] ELEPHANTS IN BATTLE 323
Ptolemy IV of Egypt, and Antiochus the Great of Syria, the ele-
phants played an important part.]
Ptolemy opened the battle with a charge of elephants.
Only some few of them, however, came to close quarters with
the foe ; seated on these the soldiers in the howdahs main-
tained a brilliant fight, lunging at and striking each other
with crossed pikes. But the elephants fought still more
brilliantly, using all their strength in the encounter, and
pushing against each other forehead to forehead.
The way elephants fight is this : they get their tusks en-
tangled and jammed, and then push against one another with
all their might, trying to make each other yield ground, un-
til one of them, proving superior in strength, has pushed
aside the other's trunk ; and when he can once get a side
blow at his enemy, he pierces him with his tusks, as a bull
would with his horns.
Now most of Ptolemy's animals, as is the way with African
elephants, were afraid to face the fight ; for they cannot stand
the smell and trumpeting of the Indian elephants [such as
Antiochus had], but were frightened at their size and
strength, I suppose, and ran away from them at once, with-
out waiting to come near them. This is exactly what hap-
pened on this occasion ; and upon their being thrown into
confusion and being driven back upon their own lines,
Ptolemy's guard gave way before the rush of the animals ;
while Antiochus, wheeling his men to avoid the elephants
[charged Ptolemy from another quarter],
[On the other side of the battle, however, the Egyptian phalanx
defeated the Syrians, and Antiochus was forced to retire.]
Three of his elephants were killed on the field ; and two
died afterward of their wounds. On Ptolemy's side sixteen
of his elephants were killed, and most of the others captured. 1
i Antiochus had gone into the battle with 102 elephants, and Ptolemy
with 73.
324 THE HELLENISTIC AGE
120. THE CITY OF AKTIOCH
Strabo, "Geography," book XVI, chap. 11, 5 ff. Bohn Translation
Next to Alexandria, Antioch was undoubtedly the leading city
of Hellendom. Besides being the capital of the great Seleucid
monarchy, it was the head of a very important caravan route from
the East, and the seat of extensive manufactures and commerce.
It was an elegantly built city of about 500,000 inhabitants. We
do not possess any such careful descriptions of it as we have of
Alexandria; yet one can form a good idea of its great size and
magnificence.
Antioch is the metropolis of Syria. A palace was built
there for the princes of the country. It is not much inferior
in riches and magnitude to Alexandria in Egypt.
Seleuces Nicator [king of Syria, 312-280 B.C.] settled
here the descendants of Triptolemus. 1 On this account the
people of Antioch regard [this legendary personage] as a
hero, and celebrate a festival in his honor on Mount Cassius
[near the city]. They say that when he was sent by the
Argives in search of lo, he wandered through Cilicia, and
settled with them on the banks of the Orontes [on the site
of Antioch].
Daphne, a town of moderate size, is distant from Antioch
about 40 stadia [four and a half miles]. Here is a large
forest, with a thick covert of shade and springs of water
flowing through it. In the midst of the forest is a sacred
grove, which is a sanctuary, and a temple of Apollo and
Artemis. It is the custom of the inhabitants of Antioch
and the region to assemble here for public festivals. The
forest is 80 stadia [nearly nine miles] in circuit.
The river Orontes flows near the city. Its source is in
Coele-Syria. Having taken its course underground, it reap-
1( This is one of many attempts to connect the Grecian cities of the Ori-
ent with Old Greece, by a caref ally fostered myth.
250B.C.] THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA 325
pears, traverses the land of Apameia to Antioch, approaches
the latter city, and then descends to the sea at Seleucia.
The name of the river was formerly the "Typhon," but was
changed to the Orontes from the name of the man who
built a bridge over it.
On the west [of Antioch] the sea, into which the Orontes
empties, lies below Antioch. Seleucia [the port of Antioch]
is distant from the sea 40 stadia and Antioch is 120 stadia
[about thirteen miles]. The ascent by the river to Antioch
is performed in one day.
121. A DESCRIPTION OF ALEXANDRIA
Strabo, " Geography," book XVII, chap. 1, 6 ff. Bohn Translation
If Athens was the leading city of Greece in the classical period,
Alexandria had surely the same honor during the age of " Hellen-
dom." In it Bast and West, North and South, came together as
nowhere else in the Oriental world. No other city did so much
to give the general stamp of Greek civilization to the nearer East.
The description by Strabo conveys a tolerably complete idea of
the elegance, wealth, and magnitude of this city of some 600,000
odd inhabitants.
When Alexander [the Great] arrived in Egypt, and per-
ceived the location [of Alexandria] and its advantages, he
resolved to build the city on the natural harbor. The pros-
perity of the place which ensued, it is said was presaged by
something that occurred while the plan of the city was be-
ing traced. The architects were busy marking out the line
of the walls with chalk, and had consumed it all, when the
king arrived ; upon which the dispensers of flour supplied
the workmen with a part of the flour which was provided
for their own use; and this substance was used in tracing
the greater part of the divisions of the streets. This
they said was a good omen for the city.
The advantages of the city are of various kinds. The
326 THE HELLENISTIC AGE
site is washed by two seas, on the north by what is called
the Egyptian Sea, and on the south, by the sea of the lake
Mareia, which is also called Mareotis. This lake is filled
by many canals from the Nile, both by those above and
those at the sides, through which a greater quantity of mer-
chandise is imported than by those communicating with the
sea. Hence the harbor on the lake is richer than the sea-
side harbor. The exports of Alexandria exceed the imports.
This any person can ascertain by watching the arrival and
departure of the merchant ships, and observing how much
heavier or lighter their cargoes are than when they depart
or return.
The Healthfullness of Alexandria,
But besides the wealth won from the merchandise landed
at the two harbors, the fine air of the city is worthy of note.
This results from the city being on two sides surrounded by
water, and from the favorable effects of the rise of the Nile.
Other cities, indeed, situated near the lakes, have a heavy,
suffocating atmosphere during the summer heats, and the
lakes at their margins become swampy by the evaporation
occasioned by the sun's heat. When a large quantity of
moisture is exhaled from the swamps, a noxious vapor
arises, and is the cause of malignant disorders. But at
Alexandria, at the beginning of summer, the Nile, being
full, fills the lake also, and thus leaves no marshy matter
which is likely to cause noxious exhalations. At the same
time, too, the Etesian winds blow from the north, across a
broad reach of the sea, and the Alexandrians as a result pass
the summer right pleasantly.
Form and Aspect of Alexandria
The shape of the city is that of a chlamys or military
cloak. The sides, which give the length, are surrounded by
260 B.C.] CITY OF ALEXANDER 327
water and are about 30 stadia in extent ; but the isthmuses,
which determine the breadth of the sides, are each of seven
or eight stadia, bounded on one side by the sea, on the
other by the lake. 1 The whole city is intersected with
streets for the passage of horsemen and chariots. Two of
these are exceeding broad, over a plethrum in breadth, 2 and
cut one another at right angles. The city contains also very
beautiful public parks and royal palaces, which occupy a
fourth or even a third of its whole extent. For as each of
the kings was desirous of adding some embellishment to the
places dedicated to the public use, so besides the buildings
already existing each of them erected a building at his
own expense. Hence the expression of the poet [Homer]
may be applied.
" One after another springs." [" Odyssey, 11 XVII, 266.]
All the buildings are connected one with another, and these
also with what are beyond it.
The Royal Palaces
The Museum is a part of the palaces. It has a public
walk, and a place furnished with seats, and a large hall, in
which men of learning, who belong to the Museum, take
their common meal. This community possesses also prop-
erty in common ; and a priest, formerly appointed by the
kings, but at present [Augustus's day] by Caesar, presides
over the Museum.
A part of the palace compound is called the Sema, an in-
closure containing the tombs of the kings and also of Alex-
ander the Great. Ptolemy [the First] took the body of
Alexander and deposited it in Alexandria in the place where
it now lies ; though not indeed in the same coffin, for the
1 Alexandria thus measured a little over three miles long by a little un-
der one mile in width.
2 A little over 100 feet The streets of most ancient cities were exces-
sively narrow.
328 THE HELLENISTIC AGE
present one is of hyalus (alabaster ?), while Ptolemy placed
it in one of gold ; [but subsequently it was plundered].
The Harbors
In the great harbor at the entrance, on the right hand, are
the island and the Pharos [lighthouse] tower, on the left
are the reef of rocks and the promontory Lochias, with a
palace upon it ; at the entrance on the other hand are the
inner palaces which are continuous with those on the Lo-
chias, and contain many painted apartments and groves.
[Near by] is the theater, then the Poseidonium, a kind of
elbow projecting out from the merchant harbor [Emporium]
with a temple of Poseidon upon it. [There follow along the
water front a vast succession of docks, military and mercan-
tile harbors, magazines, also canals reaching the lake Mare-
6tis, and many magnificent temples, an amphitheater, stadium,
etc.]
Some Notable Buildings and Streets
In short, the city of Alexandria abounds with public and
sacred buildings. The most beautiful of the former is the
Gymnasium, with porticoes exceeding a stadium in extent.
In the middle of it are the court of justice and groves.
Here, too, is a "Paneium," an artificial mound of the shape
of a fir cone, resembling a pile of rock, to the top of which
there is an ascent by a spiral path. From the summit may
be seen the wide city lying all around and beneath it. The
"Wide Street" extends in length along the Gymnasium to
the Canopic gate. Next is the " Hippodrome " (race course),
as it is called, and other buildings. After passing through
the Hippodrome is the Nicopolis [a suburb] which contains
buildings fronting on the sea, not less numerous than a reg-
ular city.
The greatest advantage which the city [of Alexandria]
285 B.C.] PROCESSION OF PTOLEMY 329
possesses arises from its being the only place in all Egypt
well situated by nature for communication with the sea
by its fine harbor, and with the land, by the river by means
of which everything is easily transported ... to the city,
which is the greatest mart in the habitable world.
122. THE GREAT SPECTACLE AND PROCESSION OP
PTOLEMY PHILADELPHIA
Athenaeus (quoting Callixenus the Rhodian), book V, chap. 25. Bohn
Translation
When Ptolemy (II) Philadelphia became king of Egypt (285
B.C.), he celebrated his accession by a magnificent procession and
festival at Alexandria. The following is only a part of the descrip-
tion of the very elaborate spectacle. The mere enumeration of all
this pomp, power, and treasure conveys a striking idea of the riches
of the Ptolemaic kings, the splendor of their court, and the re-
sources of their kingdom.
First I will describe the tent prepared inside the, citadel,
apart from the place provided to receive the soldiers, artisans,
and foreigners. For it was wonderfully beautiful, and worth
talking of. Its size was such that it could accommodate one
hundred and thirty couches [for banqueters] arranged in a
circle. [The roof was upborne on wooden pillars fifty
cubits high of which four were arranged to look like palm
trees.] On the outside of the pillars ran a portico, adorned
with a peristyle on three sides with a vaulted roof. Here it
was the feasters could sit down. The interior of this was
surrounded with scarlet curtains ; in the middle of the space,
however, were suspended strange hides of beasts, strange
both for their variegated color, and their [remarkable] size.
The part which surrounded this portico in the open air was
shaded by myrtle trees and laurels, and other suitable
shrubs.
As for the whole floor, it was strewed with every kind of
330 THE HELLENISTIC AGE
flower 5 for Egypt, thanks to its mild climate, and the f ond-
ness of its people for gardening, produces abundantly, and
all the year round, those flowers which are scarce in other
lands, and then come only at special seasons. Roses, white
lilies, and many another flowers never lack in that country.
Wherefore, although this entertainment took place in
midwinter, there was a show of flowers that was quite in-
credible to the foreigners. For flowers of which one could
not easily have found enough to make one chaplet in any
other city, were here in vast abundance, to make chaplets
for the guests, . . , and were thickly strewn over the whole
floor of the tent; so as really to give the appearance of a
most divine meadow.
By the posts around the tent were placed animals carved
in marble by the first artists, a full hundred in number ;
while in the spaces between the posts were hung pictures by
the Sicyonian painters. And alternately with these were
carefully selected images of every kind, and garments em-
broidered with gold and splendid cloaks, some having por-
traits of the kings of Egypt wrought upon them, and some
stories from mythology. Above these were placed gold and
silver shields alternately.
[A long account follows of the golden couches, golden tripods,
silver dishes, and lavers, jewel-set cups, etc., provided for the
And now to go on to the shows and processions exhibited ;
for they passed through the Stadium of the city. First of
all there went the procession of Lucifer, 1 for [the f te] began
at the time when that star first appears. [Then came
processions in honor of the several gods.] In the Dionysus
procession, first of all went the Sileni to keep off the multi-
tude, some clad in purple cloaks, and some in scarlet ones.
l Not to be confused with the character of the same name in mediaeval
theology. This name was given to the planet Venus.
285 B.C.] PROCESSION OF PTOLEMY 331
These were followed by Satyrs, bearing gilded lamps made
of ivy wood. After them came images of Victory, having
golden wings, and they bore in their hands incense burners,
six cubits in height, adorned with branches made of ivy
wood and gold, and clad in tunics embroidered with figures
of animals, and they themselves also had a deal of gold
ornament about them. After them followed an altar six
cubits high, a double altar, all covered with gilded ivy
leaves, having a crown of vine leaves upon it all gold. Next
came boys in purple tunics, bearing frankincense and myrrh,
and saffron on golden dishes. And then advanced forty
Satyrs, crowned with golden ivy garlands ; their bodies were
painted some with purple, some with vermilion, and some
with other colors. They wore each a golden crown, made to
imitate vine leaves and ivy leaves. [Presently also came]
Philiscus the Poet, who was a priest of Dionysus, and with
him all the artisans employed in the service of that god;
and following were the Delphian tripods as prizes to the
trainers of the athletes, 1 one for the trainer of the youths,
nine cubits high, the other for the trainer of the men, twelve
cubits.
The next was a four-wheeled wagon fourteen cubits high
and eight cubits wide ; it was drawn by one hundred and
eighty men. On it was an image of Dionysus -ten cubits
high. He was pouring libations from a golden goblet, and
had a purple tunic reaching to his feet. ... In front of
him lay a Lacedaemonian goblet of gold, holding fifteen
measures of wine, and a golden tripod, in which was a golden
incense burner, and two golden bowls full of cassia and
saffron ; and a shade covered it round adorned with ivy and
vine leaves, and all other kinds of greenery. To it were
fastened chaplets and fillets, and ivy wands, drums, turbans,
and [actors'] masks.
i The trainers of successful athletes naturally shared in some of the
rewards of victory.
332 THE HELLENISTIC AGE
[After many other wagons came one] twenty-five cubits
long and fifteen broad 5 and this was drawn by six hundred
men. On this wagon was a sack, holding three thousand
measures of wine, and consisting of leopards' skins sewn
together. This [sack] allowed its liquor to escape, and it
gradually flowed over the whole road. 1
[An endless array of similar wonders followed; also a vast
number of palace servants displaying the golden vessels of the king ;
twenty-four chariots drawn by four elephants each, the royal me-
nagerie, twelve chariots drawn by antelopes, fifteen by buffaloes,
eight by pairs of ostriches, eight by zebras ; also many mules,
camels, etc., and twenty-four lions.]
After these came a procession of troops, both horsemen
and footmen, all superbly armed and appointed. There
were 57,600 infantry, and 23,200 cavalry. All these marched
in the procession ... all in their appropriate armor. . , .
The cost of this great occasion was 2239 talents and 50
minse. 2
123. THE GREAT SHIP OF HIERON, KJN<* OF SYRACUSE
Athenaus (quoting Moschion), book V, chap. 40 ff. Bohn Translation
In the Hellenistic age the art of shipbuilding was carried to
high perfection. Instead of the trireme as the standard battleship
came the " quinquereme " (five-banked) ; and vessels far larger
were constructed for warlike or peaceful purposes. The ship here
described was the wonder of its age. As will be observed, she seems
to have had all the luxuries of a modern liner; but she was too
large and expensive for any regular commercial use, and not fitted
to be a warship. Consequently she had no successor. Hieron, her
builder, reigned at Syracuse from about 270 to 216 B.C.
Hieron, king of the Syracusans, was very active in ship-
building, and built a great number of vessels to carry corn,
1 An excited, scrambling Greco-Oriental crowd doubtless followed after
this " float."
3 Roughly speaking, about $2,600,000, a prodigious sum in ancient days.
230 B.C.] THE GREAT SHIP OF HIERON 333
the construction of one of which I will describe. For the
wood he caused such trees to be cut down on Mount JStna
as would suffice for sixty triremes, and then he prepared
nails and planks for the side and inside, some from Italy
and some from Sicily. The cordage for the ropes he secured
from Spain, hemp and pitch from the river Rhone, and many
other useful things from all quarters. Shipwrights and
carpenters, too, he collected. He made Archias, the Corin-
thian, superintendent of them all, and bade them labor with
zeal and earnestness, he himself devoting his days to watch-
ing their progress.
Thus he finished half the ship in six months, and every
part of the vessel, as soon as it was finished, was at once
covered over with plates of lead. There were three hundred
workmen busy getting ready the timber, besides mere jour-
neymen as helpers. As soon as this first portion [i.e. prob-
ably the bare hull] was in shape, it was arranged to draw it
down to the sea, there to be completed. After much inquiry
as to the best way of launching, Archimedes, the great
mechanician, launched it by himself with only a few people
to aid. He had prepared a helix, 1 and with this drew the
huge ship down to the sea. [It took six months more to
complete the ship itself, after which Hieron labored on the
interior fittings.]
The ship was built with twenty banks of oars, and three
entrances, the lowest to the hold which was reached by two
long ladders, the next for persons who wished to reach the
dining rooms, the third for the men-at-arms. On either
side of the middle entrance were apartments for the men
each with four couches, thirty in number. The supper
room for the sailors could hold fifteen couches, and within
it were three special chambers each with three couches.
The kitchen was towards the vessel's stern. All these rooms
i Literally a screw. No doubt some clever mechanical engine, perhaps
with pulleys.
[After many other wagons came one] twenty-five cubits
long and fifteen broad 5 and this was drawn by six hundred
men. On this wagon was a sack, holding three thousand
measures of wine, and consisting of leopards' skins sewn
together. This [sack] allowed its liquor to escape, and it
gradually flowed over the whole road. 1
[An endless array of similar wonders followed; also a vast
number of palace servants displaying the golden vessels of the king j
twenty-four chariots drawn by four elephants each, the royal me-
nagerie, twelve chariots drawn by antelopes, fifteen by buffaloes,
eight by pairs of ostriches, eight by zebras ; also many mules,
camels, etc., and twenty-four lions.]
After these came a procession of troops, both horsemen
and footmen, all superbly armed and appointed. There
were 57,600 infantry, and 23,200 cavalry. All these marched
in the procession ... all in their appropriate armor. . , .
The cost of this great occasion was 2239 talents and 50
minae. 2
123. THE GBEAT SHIP OP HIERON, KING OF SYRACUSE
Atbenaus (quoting Moschion), book V, chap. 40 ff. Bohn Translation
In the Hellenistic age the art of shipbuilding was carried to
high perfection. Instead of the trireme as the standard battleship
came the " quinquereme " (five-banked); and vessels far larger
were constructed for warlike or peaceful purposes. The ship here
described was the wonder of its age. As will be observed, she seems
to have had all the luxuries of a modern liner; but she was too
large and expensive for any regular commercial use, and not fitted
to he a warship. Consequently she had no successor. Hieron, her
builder, reigned at Syracuse from about 270 to 216 B.O.
Hieron, king of the Syracusans, was very active in ship-
building, and built a great number of vessels to carry corn,
1 An excited, scrambling Greco-Oriental crowd doubtless followed after
this float."
2 Roughly speaking, abont $ 2,500,000, a prodigious sum in ancient days.
230 B.C.] THE GREAT SHIP OF HIERON 333
the construction of one of which I will describe* For the
wood he caused such trees to he cut down on Mount JStna
as would suffice for sixty triremes, and then he prepared
nails and planks for the side and inside, some from Italy
and some from Sicily. The cordage for the ropes he secured
from Spain, hemp and pitch from the river Rhone, and many
other .useful things from all quarters. Shipwrights and
carpenters, too, he collected. He made Archias, the Corin-
thian, superintendent of them all, and bade them labor with
zeal and earnestness, he himself devoting his days to watch-
ing their progress.
Thus he finished half the ship in six months, and every
part of the vessel, as soon as it was finished, was at once
covered over with plates of lead. There were three hundred
workmen busy getting ready the timber, besides mere jour-
neymen as helpers. As soon as this first portion [le. prob-
ably the bare hull] was in shape, it was arranged to draw it
down to the sea, there to be completed. After much inquiry
as to the best way of launching, Archimedes, the great
mechanician, launched it by himself with only a few people
to aid. He had prepared a helix, 1 and with this drew the
huge ship down to the sea. [It took six months more to
complete the ship itself, after which Hieron labored on the
interior fittings.]
The ship was built with twenty banks of oars, and three
entrances, the lowest to the hold which was reached by two
long ladders, the next for persons who wished to reach the
dining rooms, the third for the men-at-arms. On either
side of the middle entrance were apartments for the men
each with four couches, thirty in number. The supper
room for the sailors could hold fifteen couches, and within
it were three special chambers each with three couches.
The kitchen was towards the vessel's stern. All these rooms
i Literally a screw. No doubt some clever mechanical engine, perhaps
with pulleys.
In this mosaic the whole story of the " Iliad " was depicted
right marvelously. All the furniture, ceilings, and doors
were executed and finished most admirably.
Along the uppermost passage was a gymnasium 1 and
walks, their appointments entirely corresponding to the
great size of the vessel In them were beautiful gardens
enriched with all manner of plants, and shaded by roofs of
lead or tiles. There were also tents covered with boughs of
white ivory and the vine, the roots drawing moisture from
casks of earth, and watered just as were the gardens. . . .
Next there was a temple sacred to Aphrodite, containing three
couches, with a floor of agate and other most beautiful stones,
... its wall and roof were made of cypress wood, its doors
of ivory and citrus wood. It was exquisitely furnished with
pictures and statues, and goblets and vases of every possible
shape.
Also there was a drawing-room, with space for five couches ;
in it was a bookcase and along the roof a [sun] clock
There was, too, a bathroom having three brazen vessels for
holding hot water, and a bath, beautifully variegated with
marble. In the ship likewise were ten stalls for horses on
each side of the walls, and by them fodder for the horses
was kept, and the arms and outfit of the horsemen and the
boys. [There was a great cistern for fresh watey near the
bow and next to it] a large water-tight well for fish made of
beams of wood and lead. It was kept full of sea water, and
great numbers of fish were kept in it.
In the vessel were eight towers . . . two in the stern, two
at the head, the rest in the middle. [They were equipped
with weapons for beating off an enemy.] A wall having
buttresses and decks ran all through the ship, supported on
trestles. On these decks was set a catapult, which flung a
* Counted on* of the especially desirable features of the latest transat-
lantic liners.
250 B.C.] HYMN OF CLBANTHBS 335
stone weighing three talents [about 173 pounds] and an arrow
twelve cnbits long. This engine was devised by Archimedes,
and it could throw an arrow a stadium (circa 600 feet).
[There were three masts outfitted with yards for fending off
an enemy.] There were four wooden anchors and eight iron
ones on the ship. The hold, though of prodigious depth, was
pumped out by one man by means of a pulley, thanks to an
engine invented by Archimedes. The name of the ship was
the Syracusan, but when Hieron sent her to sea, he changed
her name to the Alexandrian.
As for crew [besides certain others] there were six hundred
men. Their post was always at the bow of the ship watch-
ing for the orders of the captain. . . .
They put on board the ship 60,000 measures (medimni)
of corn; 10,000 jars of Sicilian salt fish, 20,000 talents'
weight of wool, and of other cargo 20,000 talents' weight
also. Besides all this there were the provisions necessary
for the crew. 1 Hieron, when he understood that there was
no harbor in Sicily large enough [conveniently] to admit
this ship, . . . made a present of it to Ptolemy, king of
Egypt. 2
124 THE HYMN- OF CLEANTHES
Translated by Professor H. S. Palmer
Oleanthes, the philosopher, lived from about 300 to 220 B.C.
He was the pupil of Zeno, the founder of the famous Stoic school
of thinkers. In this hymn addressed to the supreme God, we
see how far the advanced Greek philosophers had proceeded from
credulous belief in the old mythology. The hymn is purely mono-
theistic ; the conception of the Deity here expressed is extremely
noble (despite obvious pantheistic leanings) ; while if reduced to
1 It has has been conjectured that tbe ship was of about 4000 modern
gross tons; a sizable vessel to-day, and probably with her elaborate upper
works more imposing than many far larger steamers.
2 Probably she had been built for trading with Greece and Egypt and
proved too large and expensive to be profitable.
336 THE HELLENISTIC AGE
stanzas and with a few slight changes the words might be used in
the. worship of various modern religious bodies.
Most glorious of immortals, thou of many names, all
powerful ever, hail ! On thee it is fit all men should call.
For we come forth from thee, and have received the gift of
imitative speech alone of all that live and move on earth.
So will I make my song of thee, and chant thy power forever.
Thee all this ordered universe, circling around the earth,
follows as thou dost guide, and evermore is ruled by thee.
For such an engine hast thou in thine unswerving hand
the two-edged, blazing, ever living bolt that at its blow
all nature trembles. Herewith thou guidest universal Reason
the moving principle of all the world, joined with the
great and lesser lights which being born so great, is high-
est lord of all.
Nothing occurs on earth, apart from thee, Lord, nor at
the airy sacred pole, nor on the sea, save what the wicked
work through lack of wisdom. But thou canst make the
crooked straight, bring order out of disorder, and what is
worthless is in thy sight worthy. For thou hast so conjoined
to one all good and ill that out of all goes forth a single
everlasting Eeason. This all the wicked seek to shun, un-
happy men, who, ever longing to obtain a good, see not nor
hear God's universal law, which, wisely heeded, would assure
them noble life. They haste away, however, heedless of
good, one here, one there ; some showing zeal in strife for
honor, some turning recklessly towards gain, others to loose-
ness and the body's pleasures.
But thou, Zeus, giver of all, thou of the cloud, guide of
the thunder, deliver men from baleful ignorance ! Scatter
it, fathers, from our souls ; grant us to win that wisdom on
which thou thyself relying suitably guidest all ; that thus
being honored, we may return to thee our honor, singing thy
works unceasingly; because there is no higher office fora
251 B.C.] HOW ARATUS TOOK SICYON 337
man, nor for a god than ever rightly singing of universal
law.
125. How ARATUS TOOK SICTON FBOM THE TYRANT
ETlCOCLES
Plutarch, "Life of Aratus," chaps. IV-IX
Aratus (271 to 213 B.C.) was the virtual founder of the great-
ness of the Achaean league. The adventures here recounted, of
how he delivered his native Sicyon from a local tyrant, took place
about 251 B.O, and form one of the most stirring and vivid pas-
sages in Plutarch. Sicyon was only one of many old Greek towns,
which in the third century B.O. suffered under petty despots.
Sparta a little later was terribly afflicted in this way ; and they
formed more or less of a scourge to the Greeks until the Koman
conquest brought genuine relief.
By this time Aratus, being grown a youth, was in much
esteem, both for his noble birth and his spirit and disposi-
tion, which, while neither insignificant nor wanting in en-
ergy, were solid, and tempered with a steadiness of judgment
beyond his years. For which reason the exiles had their
eyes most upon him, nor did Nicocles less observe his mo-
tions, but secretly spied and watched him, not out of appre-
hension of any such considerable or utterly audacious
attempt, but suspecting he held correspondence with the
kings, who were his father's friends and acquaintance.
And indeed, Aratus first attempted this way; but finding
that Antigonus, who had promised fair, neglected him and
delayed the time, and that his hopes from Egypt and Ptolemy
[II] were long to wait for, he determined to cut off the
tyrant by himself.
And first he broke his mind to Aristomachus and Ecdelus,
the one an exile of Sicyon, the other, Ecdelus, an Arcadian
of Megalopolis, a philosopher, and a man of action, having
been the familiar friend of Arcesilaus the Academic at
338 THE HELLENISTIC AGE
Athens. These readily consenting he communicated with
the other exiles, whereof some few, being ashamed to seem
to despair of success, engaged in the design; but most of
them endeavored to divert him from his purpose, as one
that for want of experience was too rash and daring.
Whilst he was consulting to seize -upon some post in
Sicyonia, from whence he might make war upon the tyrant,
there came to Argos a certain Sicyonian, newly escaped out
of prison, brother to Xenocles, one of the exiles, who being
by him presented to Aratus informed him, that that part of
the wall over which he escaped, was, inside, almost level
with the ground, adjoining a rocky and elevated place, and
that from the outside it might be scaled with ladders.
Aratus, hearing this, dispatches away Xenocles with two
of his own servants, Seuthas and Technon, to view the wall,
resolving, if possible, secretly and with one risk to hazard
all on a single trial, rather than carry on a contest as a
private man against a tyrant by long war and open force.
Xenocles, therefore, with his companions, returning, having
taken the height of the wall, and declaring the place not
to be impossible or indeed difficult to get over, but that it
was not easy to approach it undiscovered, by reason of some
small but uncommonly savage and noisy dogs belonging to
a gardener hard by, he immediately undertook the business.
Now the preparation of arms gave no jealousy, because
robberies and petty forays were at that time common every-
where between one set of people and another; and for the
ladders, Euphranor, the machine maker, made them openly,
his trade rendering him unsuspected, though one of the
exiles. As for men, each of his friends in Argos furnished
him with ten apiece out of those few they had, and he
armed thirty of his own servants, and hired some few
soldiers of Xenophilus, the chief of the robber captains, to
whom it was given out that they were to march into the
territory of Sicyon to seize the king's stud ; most of them
251 B.C.] HOW ARATUS TOOK SICYON 339
were sent before, in small parties, to the tower of Polygnotus,
with orders to wait there; Caphisias also was dispatched
beforehand lightly armed, with four others, who were, as
soon as it was dark, to come to the gardener's house, pre-
tending to be travelers, and, procuring their lodging there,
to shut up him and his dogs ; for there was no other way of
getting past. And for the ladders, they had been made to
take in pieces, and were put into chests, and sent before
hidden upon wagons. In the meantime, some of the spies
of Nicocles appearing in Argos, and being said to go pri-
vately about watching Aratus, he came early in the morning
into the market place, showing himself openly and convers-
ing with his friends ; then he anointed himself in the ex-
ercise ground, and, taking with him thence some of the
young men that used to drink and spend their time with
him, he went home; and presently after several of his
servants were seen about the market place, one carrying
garlands, another buying flambeaus, and a third speaking
to the women that used to sing and play at banquets, all
which things the spies observing were deceived, and said
laughing to one another, "Certainly nothing can be more
timorous than a tyrant, if Nicocles, being master of so great
a city and so numerous a force, stands in fear of a youth
that spends what he has to subsist upon in his banishment
in pleasure and day debauches " ; and, being thus imposed
upon, they returned home.
But Aratus, departing immediately after his morning
meal, and coining to his soldiers at Polygnotus' s tower, led
them to Neinea; where he disclosed, to most of them for
the first time, his true design, making them large promises
and fair speeches, and marched towards the city, giving for
the word " Apollo Victorious," proportioning his march to the
motion of the moon, so as to have the benefit of her light
upon the way, and to be in the garden, which was close to
the wall, just as she was setting. Here Caphisias came to
340 THE HELLENISTIC AGE
him, who had not secured the dogs, which had rim away
before he could catch them, but had only made sure of the
gardener. Upon which most of the company being out of
heart and desiring to retreat, Aratus encouraged them to go
on, promising to retire in case the dogs were too trouble-
some; and at the same time sending forward those that
carried the ladders, conducted by Ecdelus and Mnasitheus,
he followed them himself leisurely, the dogs already bark-
ing yery loud and following the steps of Ecdelus and his
companions. However, they got to the wall, and reared the
ladders with safety. But as the foremost men were mount-
ing them, the captain of the watch that was to be relieved
. by the morning guard passed on his way with the bell, and
there were many lights, and a noise of people coming up.
Hearing which, they clapt themselves close to the ladders,
and so were unobserved 5 but as the other watch also was
coming up to meet this, they were in extreme danger of
being discovered. But when this also went by without
observing them, immediately Mnasitheus and Ecdelus got
upon the wall, and, possessing themselves of the approaches
inside and out, sent away Technon to Aratus, desiring him
to make all the haste he could.
Now there was no great distance from, the garden to the
wall and to the tower, in which latter a large hound was
kept. The hound did not hear their steps of himself,
whether that he were naturally drowsy, or overwearied the
day before, but, the gardener's curs awaking him, he first
began to growl and grumble in response, and then as they
passed by to bark out aloud. And the barking was now so
great that the sentinel opposite shouted out to the dog's
keeper to know why the dog kept such a barking, and
whether anything was the matter; who answered that it
was nothing, but only that his dog had been set barking by
the lights of the watch and the noise of the bell. This reply
much encouraged Aratus's soldiers, who thought the dog's
251 B.C.] HOW ARATUS TOOK SICYON 341
keeper was privy to their design, and wished to conceal
what was passing, and that many others in the city were of
the conspiracy. But when they came to scale the wall, the
attempt then appeared both to require time and to be full
of danger, for the ladders shook and tottered extremely un-
less they mounted them leisurely and one by one, and time
pressed, for the cocks began to crow, and the country people
that used to bring things to the market would be coming to
the town directly. Therefore Aratus made haste to get up
himself, forty only of the company being already upon the
wall, and, staying but for a few more of those that were
below, he made straight to the tyrant's house and the gen-
eral's office, where the mercenary soldiers passed the night,
and, coming suddenly upon them, and taking them prisoners
without killing any one of them, he immediately sent to all
his friends in their houses to desire them to come to him,
which they did from all quarters. By this time the day
began to break, and the theater was filled with a multitude
that were held in suspense by uncertain reports and knew
nothing distinctly of what had happened, until a public
crier came forward and proclaimed that " Aratus, the son of
Clinias, invited the citizens to recover their liberty."
Then at last assured that what they so long looked for
was come to pass, they passed in throngs to the tyrant's
gates to set them on fire. And such a flame was kindled,
that it was seen as far as Corinth ; so that the Corinthians,
wondering what could be the matter, were upon the point
of coming to their assistance. Nicocles fled away secretly
out of the city by means of underground passages, and the
soldiers, helping the Sicyonians to quench the fire, plundered
the house. This Aratus hindered not, but divided also the
rest of the riches of the tyrants amongst the citizens. In
this exploit, not one of those engaged in it was slain, nor
any of the contrary party, fortune so ordering the action as
to make it clear and free from civil bloodshed.
APPENDIX
GREEK MONEY AM) MEASURES
ATTIC MONEY
All values are highly approximate.
OM [silver; after about 400 B.C., copper also], 3 cents.
Drachma [=6 obols, silver], 18 cents.
Mina [= 100 drachmae, money of account only], $18.
Talent [= 60 minse, silver] , $ 1080.
Roughly speaking, a talent equals $ 1000. Money in the
JEgenetan standard about 37% heavier than Attic.
Dario [Persian gold coin, common in Greece], $ 5.40.
MEASURES OF CAPACITY
Chcenfa = 1 quart (nearly).
Medimnos=. 11 J gallons.
MEASURES OF LENGTH
Greek foot (Pous) = .97 English feet*
Pkthrum = 97 feet.
Stadium = 582 \ feet.
[Stadium was 600 Greek feet ; roughly mile.]
Cubit [Oriental measure, distance from elbow to end of middle
finger] = about 18 inches.
843
MODERN TRANSLATIONS AND OTHER WORKS
DRAWN UPON FOR EXTRACTS
Where no translator is named tlie author of this book is responsible
for the translation given ; and in many other cases the original trans-
lation has been substantially recast.
Aristophanes : Comedies. 2 vols. Bohn's Library. London.
Aristotle: Constitution of Athens. F. J. Kenyon's translation.
London, 1895.
Arrian : Anabaw of Alexander. Bohn's Library. London. 1
Athenaeus: Deipnosopliists. 3 vols. Bohn's Library. London.
Breasted (J. H.) : History of Egypt. New York, 1905.
Cleanthes: Hymn. Translated by Professor G. H. Palmer. Re-
printed here by special permission.
Demosthenes: Orations. 4 vols. Bohn's Library. London.
Djlogenes Laertius : Lives of the Philosophers. Bohn's Library.
London.
Ebers (George): Uarda (a novel), translated from the German.
New York, 1908 (and other editions).
Euripides: Tragedies. A. S. Way's translation. 3 vols. London,
1894.
Felton (C. C.) : Ancient and Modern Greece. 2 vols. Boston,
1866.
Freeman (K. J.) : Schools of Hellas. London, 1908,
Grote : History of Greece. (See "Critical Bibliography,")
Hastings (J.) : Dictionary of ike Bible. 5 vols. London and New
York, 1898.
Hawes (C. H. and C. B.) : Crete, the Forerunner of Greece. London,
1909.
Herodotus r History. George Rawlinson, translator, 4 vols. Lon-
don, 1862. (Many later editions.) s
1 Many of these Bohn translations are not recent (dating from before
1850) and need replacing with others more correct and elegant. These
.have never been used in this work without revision and recasting of the
language. The translation of Arrian (by E. J. Chinnock, 1893) *s one of
the latest, and is among the very best of the collection.
2 The original edition of Rawlinson's Herodotus is expensive, and has
many lengthy notes and excursuses. For school purposes a sufficient sub-
344
MODERN TRANSLATIONS 345
Hesiod : Poems. Bonn's Library. London.
Homeric Poets. Buckley's translation. (Included in the Bohn
Library edition of the Odyssey.) London.
Iliad. Lang, Leaf, and Myers* translation. London, 1882. (The
best prose translation.)
Justin : History. Bonn's Library. London.
Maspero: Ancient Egypt and Assyria. London, 1892.
Nepos : Lives. Bonn's Library. London.
Odyssey : Butcher and Lang's translation. London, 1882.
Pausanias: Description of Greece. J. C. Frazier's translation.
6 vols. London, 1898.
Plato: Dialogues. B. Jowett's translation. 5 vols.; also in 4 vols.
London and New York. (A classic translation.)
Plutarch: Lives of Illustrious Men. The "Dryrten" translation
revised by dough. 4 vols. London and New York. (Many
editions. On the whole the best of several very fair trans-
lations.)
Polybius : History. E. S. Shuckburgh's translation. 2 vols. Lon-
don, 1889.
Records of the Past. 1st Series, 6 vols. London, 1880. 2d Series,
6 vols. London, 1890.
Sacred Books of the East. Vol. III. James Dannesteter's transla-
tion. Oxford, 1883.
Strabo : Geography. Bonn's Library. 8 vols. London.
Theognis : Poems. Bonn's Library. London.
Thucydides: History. B. Jowett's translation. 2 vols. New
York. (An admirable version.)
Xenophon: Works. H. G. Dakyn's translation. 5 vols. London,
1897. (Far superior to the old Bohn version.)
Zend A vesta. Chr. Bartholomse's German translations in his
Arische Forsclmngen. 3 vols. Halle, 1886-1887.
stitute can be found in the cheap reprint in the admirable " Everyman's
Library" (Button & Co., N.Y.). This gives the complete text with only
the most necessary notes.
A SELECT LIST OF BOOKS ON ORIENTAL AND
GREEK HISTORY
No attempt is here made to prepare a complete list of all worthy
books on Greek history. The works named are merely those most
likely to appeal to the inexperienced student, and no book is men-
tioned which has not been examined in its entirety with this end in
view. A great many important essays, the appreciation whereof
would call for considerable previous knowledge, have been omitted.
On numerous topics the best treatises in English are inferior to those
in French and in German.
THE OLD ORIENT
This whole subject involves the. critical study of Oriental languages,
and has peculiar problems contained in a vast technical literature.
Owing to constant archaeological discoveries, books on the Old Orient
become out of date very rapidly. Only a few books, likely to be use-
ful to the general student, are here mentioned.
The Old Orient as a Whole.
Maspero, G.: The Dawn of Civilization (to 1600 B.C.). Appleton,
. 1896. The Struggle of the Nations (to 860 B.C.).
Appleton, 1897. The Passing of the Empires (to the
Conquest of the Orient by the Greeks). Appleton, 1900.
These works translated from the French are, on the whole,
the best things we possess on the ancient Oriental monarchies.
They supersede such an older writer as Eawlinson. They
are elegantly illustrated and quite readable. The author had
a more comprehensive knowledge of Egypt than of Babylonia
and Assyria, but in everything save a few points, where very
recent discoveries have been made, he may be trusted.
Maspero, G.: Life in Andent Egypt and Assyria. Appleton, 1892.
Cleverly drawn pictures of life in Egypt in the days of
Barneses II, and in Assyria in the days of Assurbanipal.
This gives a better idea of how the people lived, the kings,
their court, warfare, etc., than any other short treatise.
346
SELECT LIST OJF HISTORICAL BOOKS 347
Ancient Egypt.
Baikie, James : The Story of the Pharaohs. Macmillan, 1908.
An interesting and up-to-date narrative, in moderate com-
pass.
Breasted, J. H. s History of Egypt. Scribner's, 1909.
The best and most recent work on the subject. Scholarly,
well written, and well illustrated. There is a smaller history
of Egypt by the same author that will suffice for most gen-
eral readers.
Erman, A.: Life in Ancient Egypt. Macmillan, 1894. Out of
print.
An elaborate work translated from the German. Almost
eveiy possible topic relating to ancient Egypt is well handled.
The -volume is a perfect mine of valuable information.
Ancient Babylonia, Assyria, Media, and Persia.
Goodspeed, G. S.: History of the Babylonians and Assyrians.
Scribner's, 1902.
A good short history.
Ragozin, Z. A.: The Story of Chaldea. Putnam's, 1886.
The JStory of Assyria. Putnam's, 1887. The Story of
Media, Babylon, and Persia. Putnam's, 1888.
The authoress of these books is not a learned Orientalist,
but she has made excellent use of the technical writings of
the experts, and she has written three books that, taken to-
gether, make a thoroughly understandable and usable history
of the great nations of the Tigro-Euphrates region, from the
beginning of Chaldean history down to the battle of Marathon.
For the uninitiated reader perhaps more will be gained from
these books than from any others on the subject.
Rogers, R. W.: History of Babylonia and Assyria. Eaton and
Mains, 1900. 2 vols. '
A scholarly and useful work.
Sayce, A. H.: Babylonians and Assyrian*; Life and Customs.
Scribner's, 1899.
A good assembling of our information on a rather ob-
scure subject.
348 APPENDIX
GEEECE
Standard Histories.
Bury, J. B. : History of Greece. Macmillan, 1900.
This is by far the best single-volume history of Greece we
possess. The book is the result of the ripe learning of a
great English scholar. Thanks to skillful condensation, a
great body of fact has been packed into a single volume, and
the story has been skillfully told. All the results of modern
scholarship, up to the time of publication, are summarized.
No historical library should lack this book.
Curtius, Ernest : History of Greece* 5 vols. Scribner's, 1870-
1874.
The author was a learned German archaeologist and art
' critic. Unlike many of his countrymen, he wrote with im-
agination and enthusiasm, as well as erudition. The opening
chapters of his work rest on theories which have proven un-
tenable ; but the remainder of the hictory is still sound. This
is the most interesting of all the larger histories of Greece.
No other author has so clear a conception of what the land,
atmosphere, and general physical environment of the Greek
peninsula did for its inhabitants. The work stops with
338 B.O.
Grote, George: History of Greece. 12 vols. Several editions, an
excellent and cheap one being in "Everyman's Library,"
Button & Co.
This is the greatest history of Greece ever written. De-
spite the fact that it was first published over half a century
ago, the greater part remains of very high value. The author
was an English scholar and statesman of no mean ability.
He wrote with a ieeling of intense admiration for Athens and
the Athenian democracy ; and with considerable spirit and
literary charm. The earlier volumes having to do with the
dawn of Greek history have been corrected by later discover-
ies, and the treatment awarded Philip and Alexander of Mace-
don is hardly just; but with these deductions the whole
work can be read with great profit. It closes with the death
of Alexander.
Holm, Adolph : History of Greece. 4 vols. Macmillan.
: A recent German work, on the whole embodying most of
the conclusions of modern scholars. The judgments are
SELECT LIST OF HISTORICAL BOOKS 349
sound, and the statements of fact usually clear, but the work
resembles many other recent products of German scholarship
in an utter absence of any skill in expression or narration.
It is, therefore, very unsatisfactory to young students, though
mature ones can use it with great profit. The fourth volume
gives the best account we have of the history of Greece from
the death of Alexander to the Roman conquest.
Topics connected with Greek History.
Hawes, C. H. and H. B. : Crete, the Fore-runner of Greece. Har-
per's, 1909.
A clear and informing summary of the recent discoveries
in Crete, which have forced us to reconstruct our concept of
the earliest JEgean civilization.
Baikie, James : The Sea Kings of Crete. Macmillan, 1910.
A larger work than that by Hawes, covering about the
same ground, but in ampler detail and with good illustrations.
Scholarly, but not too learned to be interesting.
Fowler, H. N., and Wheeler, J. R. : Greek Archeology. Ameri-
can Book Company, 1909.
A highly useful compendium of our knowledge of Greek
architecture, sculpture, terra cottas, coinage, vases, etc. , mat-
ters which, while not strictly history, no historical student
can afford to ignore.
Gardner, P., and Jevons, F. B. : Manual of Greek Antiquities.
Scribner's, 1898.
Practically every phase of Greek life public and private,
secular and religious is considered in this book. The
scholarship is excellent, though the literary treatment is de-
cidedly uneven.
Whibley, L.: Companion to Greek Studies. Cambridge Press,
1905,
A composite work, edited by an able English scholar. A
vast deal of information on every possible subject connected
with Greece and its people is conveyed in a very compressed,
yet lucid form. On the whole a better book for the average
scholar than the preceding. It should be in every good
classical library.
Harrison, Jane E. : The Religion of Ancient Greece. Open Court
Publishing Company, 1905.
350 APPENDIX
An extremely brief, but almost equally enlightening, essay
by a well-known authority on the Greek Religion^ which she
ably points out was by no means identical with the Greek
Mythology.
Fairbanks, Arthur : A Handbook of Greek Religion. American
Book Company, 1910.
This is undoubtedly the standard book upon the subject in
the English language.
Richardson, R, B. : A History of Greek Sculpture. American
Book Company, 1911.
Of all the numerous works on Greek sculpture, this is the
latest, and probably for the average student the most useful.
Good illustrations.
Mahaffy, J. P. : Social Life in Greece (to the age of Alexander).
Macmillan, 1874. Greek Life and Thought (from
Alexander to the Roman Conquest). Macmillan, 1887.
These are the books of a learned, clever, and withal highly
pugnacious Irish scholar. As a result they are very interest-
ing reading. Even when Professor Mahaffy is uttering opin-
ions from which the critics dissent, his views are worth
considering. The books treat more of the social and literary
life of the times than the political, but no student can afford
to ignore them.
Mahaffy, J. P.: Story of Alexander's Empire. Putnam's, 1887.
Tells the story of later Greece from the coming of Philip
of Macedon down to the Roman Conquest. The " cultural "
side of the picture is better done than the political side. On
the whole this is the only account of the later Hellenes in the
English language which is worth considering, saving always
the -fourth volume of Holm's history.
Gulick, Charles B. : The Lye of the Ancient Greeks. Appleton,
1902.
This is probably the best of several very good discussions
of Greek private life. Similar works by Tucker and Blumner
are commendable.
Zimmern, Alfred E. : The Greek Commonwealth. Oxford Press,
1911.
A stimulating, interesting, and decidedly original essay
upon "Politics and Economics in Fifth-Century Athens."
SELECT LIST OF HISTORICAL BOOKS 3'51
Felton, C. C. : Lectures on Ancient and Modern Greece. Hough-
ton, Mifflin, 1866.
The author was a president of Harvard College. Although
many years now have elapsed since these lectures were given
in Boston, they remain among the most informing and en-
lightening essays we have for the ''general reader" as to
things Greek. Recent research makes corrections desirable
on a few rather minor points, but in the main the lectures
may be read through with great interest and profit. The
parts dealing with the literature and the private life are
especially good ; and the lectures on the modern Greek War
of Independence are also interesting. The work stands as
a notable refutation of the prevailing idea that a new his-
torical book must be better than an old one*
Murray, 6. : The Rise of the Greek Epic. Oxford Press, 1907.
Of all the numerous books, radical and conservative, that
deal with the mooted question of the authorship of the
Homeric poems, this is probably the one from which the
nontechnical reader will gain the most. Some of the sec-
tions on the Homeric life and on the evolution of the Greece
of history from out the chaos of races around the JEgean are
extremely valuable.
Allinson, F. 6. and A. C. E. : Greek Lands and Letters. Hough-
ton, Mifflin, 1909.
Descriptions of modern Greek countries and of archaeolog-
ical finds, blended with ipt literary characterizations. The
authors show clearly how much local environment helped
the Greeks to develop their civilization, and the book aids
the reader to catch something of the Hellenic " atmosphere "
and color which makes the JEgean region notable among all
lands.
Gilbert, G. : Greek Constitutional Antiquities. Macmillan, 1895,
Translated from the German. A standard and exhaustive
treatise on the governments of Athens and Sparta.
Lloyd, W. W. : The Age of Pericles. 2 vols. Macmillan, 1876.
A careful, thorough discussion of almost all phases of the
"great" Athenian age, although literary skill is lacking.
352 APPENDIX
Ridgeway, Wm. : The Early Age of Greece. Cambridge Press,
1901. 2vols,
A very careful and learned study of a difficult subject.
Unfortunately the recent discoveries in Crete make many of
the conclusions somewhat debatable.
Schuchhardt, C. : Schliemann's Excavations. Macmillan, 1891.
A good summary of the story of the excavation of Troy,
Mycene, etc., and of the beginning of the great archaeological
campaign, which has added so vastly to our knowledge of
early Greece.
Biographies of Greeks.
Abbott, E.: Pericles.
Putnam's, 1897.
Wheeler, B. I. : Alexander the Great. Putnam's, 1900.
This and the preceding volume are two good standard biog-
raphies in the well-known '* Heroes of the Nation " Series.
Dodge, T. A.: Alexander the Great. Houghton, Mifflin, 1890.
An excellent biography from the military point of Tiew :
rather "wanting in appreciation of Alexander as a constructive
force in history.
Hogarth, D. G. : Philip and Alexander of Macedon. Scribner 1 s,
1897.
An interestingly written sketch of the two great Macedo-
nians. The author has a due appreciation of their work,
and especially is careful to see that the genius of Philip is
not overshadowed by his more brilliant son.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES OF ANCIENT AUTHORS CITED
In this list are included brief notices of most of the regular Greek
and Latin authors from whose works excerpts have been taken, but no
attempt has been made to include various obscure Christian chroni-
clers, or to trace the authorship of Oriental inscriptions, etc. Many
famous poets of antiquity, e.g. -SCschylus and Sophocles, are not men-
tioned because no quotations are made from their writings.
JEschines (389 to 814 B.C.). The leading orator of Athens in the
fourth century B.C., saving only Demosthenes, and the latter's
chief opponent. A man of remarkable eloquence; but his
character as a patriot is open to criticism for his continual
advocacy of the cause of Macedon.
Aristophanes (444 to about 380 B.C.). The prince of the Athenian
poets of the "Old Comedy/' i.e. comedy which was mainly
concerned with comment and caricature touching the events
of the day. Some of Aristophanes's plays were political, e.g.
the Knights was especially directed against the demagogue
Cleon ; others were devoted to social questions, e.g. the Clouds
took up new educational theories and made a vicious attack
upon the alleged evil doctrines of Socrates. The literary
skill is of the very highest order, and the eleven comedies of
Aristophanes which are preserved to us throw invaluable light
upon almost all the problems and events of his day.
Aristotle (384 to 322 B.C.). A native of Stagira in the Chalcidice,
who spent much of his life at Athens, where he was the favorite
pupil of Plato- Pbilip employed him as preceptor to his son
Alexander. Aristotle was the most learned man and perhaps
the greatest intellect produced by all antiquity, and no notice
can be taken here of his mnitif arious activities. One of the
great treasures which he bequeathed to posterity was his
. treatise on The Constitution of Athens & work only recently
rediscovered. Although this small book is not an infallible
authority as against, e.g. the statements of Thucydides, it is
always to be treated with the greatest respect*
863
354 APPENDIX
Airian (about 90 A.D. to about 170 A.D.), A Greek historian and
philosopher of considerable ability. He was born in Bithynia,
entered the Roman civil service, held important governorships,
and in 146 A.D. was consul. His Life of Alexander is compiled
from good contemporary sources, and is on the whole decidedly
well written. It is the best biography we have of the great
Macedonian.
Athenaeus (wrote about 230 A.D.). A learned Grseco-Egyptian
grammarian. In his "Banquet of the Learned" (Deipnos-
ophists) he has strung together a vast quantity of fact and
anecdote on a great many subjects, especially gastronomy. It
is a frigid, fearfully erudite work, yet conveying considerable
information.
Cleanthes (about 800 to about 220 B.C.)* A distinguished Stoic
philosopher ; although a native of the Troad, he spent much
of his life at Athens.
Demosthenes (3S5 to 322 B.C.). The story of his career is neces-
sarily the whole story of the downfall of .the freedom of the
Greek city-states. In judging him as an orator, it is to be
remembered we can only read his orations. Much of their
effectiveness undoubtedly came from his marvelous delivery.
Considered as mere literary productions, they are models of
well-displayed patriotism, clear thinking, clever turns of argu-
ment, clothed with a remarkable majesty of language which
never falls into bombast.
Diodorus Siculus (lived in the age of Julius Csesar and Augustus).
He was a Sicilian Greek, who compiled a large universal his-
tory, covering almost everything from the period of myth
down to his own. Only fifteen of his forty books are pre-
served. He was a frigid writer, who borrowed from earlier
historians with little discrimination and less literary skill;
nevertheless, he has saved for us many facts not contained in
any other surviving author.
Diogenes Lagrtius (probably lived in second century A.D.). A
Cilician Greek whose Lives of Philosophers gives a vast deal as
to the personal careers of most of the famous thinkers of
Hellas. In view of the loss of older and more complete works,
NOTES ON AUTHORS CITED 355
his treatise is in valuable,, although he was not a writer of any
deep insight or marked originality.
Euripides (480 to 406 B.C.). The third in order of age of the great
Attic tragedians. The others are, of course, JEschylus and
Sophocles. He departed from the types of his predecessoi*s
by representing men, as Aristotle suggests, "not as they ought
to be, but as they are. He was the first prominent realist,
and was bitterly assailed, both in his own age and of recent
years, as too much given to a skeptical philosophy. Whatever
be the facts, he remains one of the most brilliant luminaries of
the " Age of Pericles."
* Herodotus (484 to about 430 B.C.). The Father of History was
a native of Halicarnassus, on the coast of Caria. He spent
much of his earlier life in travel, visiting Egypt, Babylon, etc.,
and later seems to have stayed long in Athens, where lie was
intimate with the great spirits poets, artists, philosophers
who adorned the Age of Pericles. His history of the great
conflict betwixt Persia and Hellas is really the first surviving
piece of Greek prose. He is not critical in his use of data;
often he displays a distinctly naive credulity, yet he aims
throughout to be truthful, and in the main his history has run
the gauntlet of modern criticism exceedingly well. To him
the contest with the Persian deserved an epic, and his narra-
tive is in some sense an epic poem, with charming digressions,
dramatic climaxes, divine interventions and forewarnings,
and the like. All things considered, Herodotus's story is the
most readable history ever written, and possibly the most
valuable in its subject matter.
Hesiod (lived about 700 B.C.). Hesiod was claimed by the Greeks
as the leading successor of Homer, and they named Ascra in
Boeotia as his birthplace. He was probably an historical per-
sonage, although little seems certain about him. His leading
poems were the Works and Days, containing precepts on all
kinds of subjects, and much discussion of the political
and economic problems of the eighth century B.C., and the
Theogony, a more genuinely poetical account of the origin of
the world and the birth of the gods.
Homer. The questions relating to the authorship of the Iliad and
56 APPENDIX
of the Odyssey are so complex that only a few prime points
can be stated here :
L Present-day scholars are agreed that these poems are not
the original products of a "blind bard of Chios, whom the
Greeks imagined lived about 1000 B.C.
IL Most modern scholars believe that the poems, as we have
them, are the product of a succession of minstrels ; and that they
are the gradual outgrowth from various extremely old legends.
First, a few single incidents about a war with Troy, and the
return from Troy of Odysseus, were recited by the bards, then
gradually perhaps by a process lasting several centuries
they became elaborated and compacted into two long and
fairly unified epics.
III. It is probable that the Iliad as we have it is a
considerably older poem than the Odyssey.
IV. There is a fair degree of certainty that, back of the
legend of the expedition of the Greeks to Troy, there lies a
kernel of fact the destruction by attackers from across the
JEgean of a great and ancient city by the Hellespont.
Y. Somewhat less certainly it may be imagined that a single
great personality^ possessed of a true poetic genius, put the
various " sagas * together into the Iliad as we now have it ; this
person would be the so-called " Homer.'* There is difficulty in
conceiving that in any case the same person could have shaped
both the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Taking these epics as they stand, they are the first fruits
of the developing genius of the Hellene. If the civilization
producing them had been immediately afterward blotted out,
it would nevertheless be rightly described as "great."
ascriptions. A vast amount of our evidence for antiquity is
"graven on the rock." Lacking our cheap paper, and with
only an inferior substitute in papyrus or, later, in parchment
(in Babylonia clay tablets were used), during the whole of
antiquity men sought to perpetuate their documents and their
own memory by elaborate inscriptions on the walls of Egyp-
tian tombs, on the walls of Assyrian palaces, and on countless
monuments and buildings in the Grseco-Koman age. Funeral
inscriptions often exceedingly elaborate and recounting all
the career and fortune of the deceased enable us to recon-
NOTES ON AUTHORS CITED 357
struct much of the private life, especially of Egypt and of the
Roman empire. Cities caused laws, treaties, etc., to be en-
graved and set up in their temples, as did kings and emperors
their edicts and rescripts. All in all, this inscriptional evi-
dence constitutes a large fraction of our whole knowledge of
ancient history, though its interpretation is often, a matter of
extreme difficulty.
Lysias (458 to 378 B.C.). He was born at Athens, hut his father
was a Syracusan, and he was not, therefore, an Athenian citi-
zen. He wrote a great number of orations usually for others
to learn and deliver in their own behalf before the courts,
although a few he seems to have spoken himself. His ora-
tions sometimes lack force, but are distinguished by a remark*
able clearness, grace, and elegance.
Nepos (reign of Augustus). Cornelius Nepos was a friend of Cicero
and of Cicero's famous correspondent, Atticus. He wrote a book
of Lives of Distinguished Men, which seems of no very high
literary excellence, though giving us a considerable body of
facts. It is likely, however, that we have only an abridgment
of the original work.
Pausaniaa (lived under Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius). A
traveler and geographer, who put posterity under a heavy
debt by his Itinerary of Greece. He visited the country about
170 A.D., when the memorials of the great past were still
intact, and the local legends were still carefully cherished.
These he placed with some faithfulness and minuteness in his
book. His work has obscurities and blunders, but is a perfect
mine of information to the archaeologist.
Pindar (522 to about 442 B.C.). The greatest lyric poet of Greece,
He was a native of Thebes. His choral odes in honor of
special occasions, e.g. victories at Olympia and the other Pan**
Hellenic games, were sought by cities and princes from all
over the Greek world. Pindar's language is often extremely
forced and archaic, his meters highly involved, but his poetry,
both in loftiness of thought and elegance of expression, prob-
ably represents the highest point reached by the Greek mind
before the development of the great intellectual luminaries ol
Athens in the Age of Pericles."
358 APPENDIX
Plato (429 to 847 B.C.). An Athenian and the favorite among the
pupils of Socrates. He possessed wealth and a noble lineage,
and probably had he lived half a century earlier, he would
have developed into a distinguished poet. As it was, his
poetic instinct clothes his philosophic Dialogues with a literary
charm which combined with the actual ideas expressed
makes them among the chief treasures transmitted to us by
the Greeks* In his shorter and earlier dialogues, it is fair to
assume he is faithfully reporting Socrates, whenever that
master is represented as speaking* In the later ones, Plato is
making Socrates merely the mouthpiece for his own ideas.
Plato spent most of his life teaching in the famous gymna-
sium of the Academy, consequently his school was called the
" Academic."
Plutarch (about 50 A.D. to about 120 A.D.). A Greek of Chsero-
neia in Boeotia, and perhaps the most widely known writer of
the whole Imperial period. He made visits to Rome, but
spent most of his time in the little town in Boeotia, where he
held various local offices. He was not an original thinker,
but he seems to have represented the old pagan ideals and
morality at their best, and he' was wonderfully successful in
casting the opinions and writings of others into lucid and
highly interesting prose. His Parallel Lives (a Greek and a
Roman) are the ablest set of biographies ever composed,
despite the fact, that they were written rather to edify by
noble examples than to pass as critical history. His extensive
ethical writings, the Morals, although less popular, are dis-
tinguished by a sane and practical view of life which makes
them admirable reading even after nineteen centuries.
Polybius. See Biographical Note in Vol. II.
Strabo (about 54 B.C. to about 24 A.D.). A Greek of Pontus who
wrote a Geography that is a real gazetteer of the world in the
days of Augustus. It is written with considerable literary
grace and critical insight and is the source of much incidental
historical and archaeological information. He lived some
years in Rome, and seems to have traveled through many of
the countries which he describes. His work is of very high
value.
NOTES ON AUTHORS CITED 359
Theognis (active about 580 B.C. or somewhat later (?); dates
uncertain). A famous poet of Megara, who was driven into
exile by the democratic upheavals in his native city. His
elegiac poems are infused with a keen worldly wisdom and
appreciation of the evils of his times, and their pithy didactic
quality made them favorites with Greek schoolmasters for
memorizing by their pupils.
Thucydides (471 to about 401 B.C.). An Athenian, who grew up
amid the choice intellectual circle surrounding Pericles, whom
he vastly admired. When the Peloponnesian war began, he
conceived the idea of writing a "Modern History," to set forth
impartially and accurately all that came to pass. Later as an
exile at Sparta, he was able to secure the Lacedaemonian side
of the great story. He executed his purpose with remarkable
fidelity and precision. His history, telling the story of the
war and its preliminaries down to 411 B.C., is one of the most
satisfying ever written. Even where he can be suspected of
error or bias, the proof thereof is seldom satisfactory; and at
times he rises to a remarkable height of lofty and truly stir*
ring narration. Thucydides is a model for every modern his-
torian.
Xenophon (about 444 to about 355 B.C.). An Athenian who was
among the intimate friends of Socrates. He went on the
famous " March of the Ten Thousand Greeks M under Cyrus
the Younger, and became the leader upon the retreat. Being
banished from Athens, he spent much of his life at Sparta,
where he contracted close friendship with King Agesilaus and
others, and he continued a " Laconophile " all his life. He
was an extremely versatile writer. His Memorabilia (anec-
dotes and conversations of Socrates), his Anabasis (story of
the Great March), and his Hellenica (continuation of Thucyd-
ides down to 362 B.C.) are only part of his productions. As
a historian he has considerable merit, though incomparably
inferior to Thucydides. His (Economicus is one of his semi-
philosophical writings, setting forth that there is a true and
separate art relating to the management of homes and private
property.
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